/ 

ILLUSTRATIONS 
UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 



CONSISTING CHIEFLY OP 



PRACTICAL AND MORAL APPLICATIONS OF 
ITS PRINCIPLES. 



IN 

A SERIES OF DISCOURSES. 



By WILLIAM HINCKS, F.L.S. 



LONDON: 

JOHN CHAPMAN, 121, NEWGATE 
1845. 



STREET. 



& A 5 



LO!( HON .* 
RICHARD KINDER, PRINTER, 
GXEES ARBOUR COURT, OLD BAII.LY. 





PREFACE. 



This Volume originates in the Author's deep con- 
viction, that every doctrine has a definite practical 
tendency ; and when at all seriously believed and 
considered, produces a real influence on the cha- 
racter. Hence, in the course of his preaching, he 
has made it an especial object to trace and exhibit 
the effects of the doctrines which he receives as 
true, and occasionally of those to which he is op- 
posed j and he has been led to think, that a selec- 
tion of Discourses of this character might have 
some novelty, and a good deal of utility. 

He has by no means attempted a regular exa- 
mination of the influences to be expected from 
the distinguishing doctrines of Unitarian Chris- 
tianity ; and there are even many important points 
to which he has not at all adverted, simply because 
a2 



IV PREFACE. 

some selection was necessary, and the Discourses 
contained in the present Volume, as they passed 
under his review, seemed to him suitable to his 
design. Some of these will, at first sight, appear 
little connected with the distinguishing features 
of Unitarianism ; but on examination it will be 
found, that in every one of them the practical 
influence is immediately derived from a doctrinal 
view held by Unitarian Christians only, and some- 
times by but a small part of them. The Author, 
however, could but exhibit and carry out into their 
consequences his own views, which he submits to 
the candid consideration of the public. The ma- 
terials in hand would at once have furnished 
another volume ; but it seemed better to offer only 
a moderate portion at one time, so as to have the 
opportunity of judging how far the subject is cal- 
culated to interest the generality of readers, and 
is likely to be usefully pursued. 

The writer is fully aware how many of the 
practical influences of Christianity, including some 
of the most important, are common to believers in 
the most opposite creeds — and these furnish a 



PREFACE. V 

large proportion of the topics for preaching. Ac- 
cordingly, he does not here give those of his own 
Discourses which, on the whole, he deems most 
valuable, but a series directed to the illustration 
of a particular subject, which, in his opinion, or- 
dinarily receives less attention than it deserves. 
His desire is to do something to promote piety 
and holiness, as resulting from the knowledge of 
the truth, and reflection upon it ; and he humbly 
commits his work to the Divine blessing. 

Garden Place, Hampstead. 
January 5th, 1845. 



CONTENTS. 



DISCOURSE I. 

PAGE 

Attachment to our Christian Faith . .1 

DISCOURSE II. 
Religious Truth Practically Important . . .19 

DISCOURSE III. 
The Moral Perfections of God 39 

DISCOURSE IV. 
Practical Tendency of Unitarian Christianity. 

Part 1st — Principles by which we judge . . 61 

DISCOURSE V. 
Practical Tendency of Unitarian Christianity. 

Part 2nd — Doctrines and their Effects ... 73 

DISCOURSE VI. 
Christianity an Intellectual and Spiritual Faith . . 91 

DISCOURSE VII. 
The Doctrine of Divine Influences . . . .111 

, DISCOURSE VIII. 
Christian Faith .145 

DISCOURSE IX. 
Mystery in Religion 163 



Till CONTENTS. 



DISCOURSE X. 

PAGE 

Paul's Preaching before Felix ..... 177 

DISCOURSE XL 
The Christian Evidence for a Life to come . . .191 

DISCOURSE XII. 
Newness of Life . 207 

DISCOURSE XIII. 
The Character of Jesus perfected through Suffering . 219 

DISCOURSE XIV. 
Christian Purity . . 237 

DISCOURSE XV. 
The Appearance of Evil 249 

DISCOURSE XVI. 
The Retributory Effect of Memory . . . .263 

DISCOURSE XVII. 
Christian Hope 277 

DISCOURSE XVIII. 
The Education of Conscience ..... 293 

DISCOURSE XIX. 
The Progressive and the Permanent in Christianity . 309 



DISCOURSES. 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR CHRISTIAN 
FAITH. 



Romans viii. 38, 39. 

" For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." 

The apostle having shown in opposition to Ju- 
daizing bigots that God could not reject or con- 
demn those whom he had called to the privilege 
of the Gospel, in consequence of their non- 
observance of a ceremonial law, proceeds to urge 
the greatness of the blessings bestowed by him 
through Christ, as a reason why no persecution or 
suffering, no difficulty or trial of whatsoever kind, 
should cause any sincere believer to renounce 
those advantages of which he had become a par- 
taker, or cut himself off from the enjoyment of 
those inestimable benefits which so much love had 
been displayed in communicating. 

" What," he asks, " shall separate us from the 

B 



2 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



love of Christ?" (shall cause us to refuse and 
abandon the blessings which he has been the 
means of conveying to us.) " Shall tribulation, or 
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, 
or peril, or the sword ?" Though our case should 
be such as is expressed in these words of Scrip- 
ture : " For thy sake we are exposed to death all 
the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the 
slaughter) yet in all these things we are more 
than conquerors through him that loved us." So 
exalted are the privileges, so inestimable the hopes 
which we enjoy, that they much more than 
counterbalance all the evils to which for the sake 
of our religion we can be exposed. 

e< For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life," 
(neither the fear of the one, nor the hope of secur- 
ing the other,) " nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers," (it is most probable that the word ' angels 3 
is here applied to officers of the Jewish church, 
and that the whole meaning is, nor any autho- 
rities, whether religious or civil,) " nor things pre- 
sent, nor things to come," (neither present 
afflictions, nor the fear of future sufferings,) "nor 
height, nor depth," (the proper translation would 
seem to be, nor exaltation nor depression — neither 
the seductions of prosperity, nor the terrors of 
adversity,) "nor any other thing, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of (rod, which is in 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



3 



Christ Jesus our Lord" (shall cause us volun- 
tarily to give up our share in that greatest good, 
the manifestation of God^s love through Christ 
Jesus our Lord). 

In considering this passage we cannot but be 
forcibly impressed with the very high estimate 
formed by the apostle, of the blessings of the 
Gospel, which he so warmly and eloquently ex- 
presses, and we are led to inquire whether we 
have a proper sense of its importance, or a be- 
coming feeling of grateful attachment to our holy 
calling. Allowances we must make for some dif- 
ferences between our case and that of those who 
first received the Christian faith. It had to them 
the charm and the power of novelty; to us its 
features are familiar even from infancy, — it never 
could be thought of by them, but in contrast with 
the hard servitude of the law, which, reduced to 
little better than an external form, allowed the 
evasion of the most important duties, and retained 
little of its original character besides the exclusive 
spirit which belonged to its temporary purpose, 
or the degrading superstitions of heathenism 
which directly sanctioned and encouraged the 
grossest immoralities : we are scarcely acquainted 
from personal observation with any opposing sys- 
tem of religion and morals, and find even those 
who reject its authority admitting many of its 
b2 



4 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



truths, and putting forth, as if derived from other 
sources, many of its precepts. They had felt in 
themselves a change of principles, dispositions and 
conduct so complete, as to be justly compared to 
being born again and being newly created. Too 
many among us remain through life in that reli- 
gious state in which the circumstances of early 
education placed us ; those who feel most the 
progressive influences of religion, and who are, as 
we all ought to be, growing better through life, 
improving both in the understanding and appli- 
cation of divine truths, are yet conscious of no 
remarkable contrast between their present and any 
former state, and only those who have gone 
through some great revolution of religious opi- 
nions, or been suddenly brought to a sense of the 
importance of religion which they had previously 
neglected, can have feelings in this respect at all 
similar to those of the first believers. 

I might add the awakening effect of the actual 
presence of miraculous gifts : the call on those 
who enjoyed such aids exclusively to devote them- 
selves to the diffusion of their new faith, and the 
well-known influence of persecution on all who 
entertain any serious conviction in exciting their 
ardour and increasing their attachment to a cause 
which they believe to be that of truth and of God. 

We have reason on the whole to be very thank- 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



5 



ful to God that our interest in our religion is not 
stimulated by such excitements as those which 
were applied to the earliest disciples of our master 
— the last mentioned indeed to many of their fol- 
lowers in after times ; and if in consequence we 
ordinarily exhibit less intensity of feeling, we may 
hope that by a just and merciful God this circum- 
stance will not be imputed to us as a sin. But 
yet, when, independently of any peculiarities 
affecting the condition of the first Christians, de- 
rived either from the evils of their previous state, 
or from the machinery employed in establishing 
our religion in the world, we attempt to bring 
under our notice no more than a slight sketch of 
the blessings we enjoy through the Gospel, it 
surely cannot appear to us that the strongest 
expressions respecting its value are, as applied 
to our case, unreasonable, or that the most ardent 
and animated assurances of our unchangeable and 
grateful adherence to it, are any thing more than 
would be called forth from us by a just sense of 
our obligations and our wants. 

When we consider that by Christianity only the 
treasures of Jewish theology have been opened to 
us and to mankind at large ; that before our 
Lord's time the Jewish people stood alone in the 
world in receiving the doctrines of a pure and 
sublime theism, and in professing obedience to a 
b 3 



6 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



moral law, which, notwithstanding its association 
with ritual observances adapted only to an early 
state of society, notwithstanding its accommo- 
dations to the hardheartedness of an ignorant 
and barbarous age, and the exclusiveness of spirit 
which belonged to the object of keeping one nation 
separate though for the ultimate benefit of all, 
exhibits more of purity, benevolence and practical 
adaptation to promote the virtue and happiness 
of man, than any other which the world had seen ; 
that even when the Jewish Law was corrupted 
and ready to be superseded, and when the intel- 
lectual progress of mankind was such that they 
might be considered as capable of profiting by a 
better system, there were yet very few amongst 
other nations who had acquired a knowledge of 
the simplest principles of religion and morality, 
whilst those few neither duly applied them, nor 
at all attempted to diffuse them through the mass 
of society ; that on the contrary the spread of 
Christianity — a spiritualized and perfected Judaism 
< — was surprisingly rapid, and its influence on the 
lives of those who embraced it (however in after 
times modified by corruptions which were intro- 
duced) was undeniable and extraordinary. When 
we consider these plain and unquestionable facts, 
We cannot hesitate to ascribe the greater and more 
important part of the knowledge we possess re- 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



7 



specting our Creator, his perfections, his govern- 
ment and his will, on which what is advantageous 
both in our intellectual and moral condition chiefly 
depends, to the Gospel of Christ. Now, when the 
gross darkness is dispelled, it is easy for men to 
justify the truth of revelation by arguments from 
nature, and, calling them natural religion, to reject 
or undervalue the original source of the light 
they enjoy — or to suppose that if God spoke at 
all he must have had something more and different 
to communicate ; but inquiry and reflection show 
us that but for the " love of God, as manifested in 
Christ Jesus our Lord," we might even yet be in a 
state of Heathen darkness, utterly destitute of 
those truths and principles on which all that is 
desirable in our religious and social state depends. 
Let us add the considerations that the Gospel 
offers to us the privilege of being called the chil- 
dren of God, and teaches us to regard him as our 
kind and compassionate father; that it removes 
those anxious doubts and fears which a sense of our 
own frailty, and of the many sins into which we 
have fallen, and of the perfect holiness and justice 
of our great ruler and judge, must otherwise occa- 
sion, by showing us that we owe every thing to 
his mercy, and that this mercy is freely offered to 
all who seek it in sincere repentance and endea- 
vours after improvement; and that above all, it 



8 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



gives us the assurance of a future existence, that 
which has been often desired, but scarcely ever 
firmly believed, with any rational and useful view 
of its nature, except upon this warrant — which 
certainly never was believed in any manner that 
could be of the least practical utility before its 
light was diffused. On the importance of this 
grand doctrine in giving their greatest efficacy to 
all the motives to virtue, moderating our earthly 
desires, checking our anxieties respecting the 
changes of the present scene, and consoling us 
amidst those bereavements to which we are all 
from time to time exposed, it would be needless 
now to enlarge : it is plain that even if it be 
granted, which is very doubtful, that some know- 
ledge of this most interesting of all truths was 
afforded to the servants of God in earlier times, 
and that the writings of the Old Testament con- 
tain some indications of its having been received, 
it is not the less true that we owe our acquaintance 
with it to the Gospel. It is not the less true that 
the manner in which it is there taught, and the * 
example afforded in the resurrection of our 
blessed Lord, and the clear proofs of his com- 
munications with his disciples after he had left 
this world, are of unspeakable value for giving the 
doctrine its full influence both in the way of 
motive and of consolation. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



9 



Christianity enlightens us respecting the being 
on whom we constantly depend, directs us in the 
way of duty, inspires us with a disinterested love 
of our fellow creatures, consoles us under disap- 
pointment and affliction, teaches us how to make 
our trials useful to us, elevates our minds above the 
meaner cares and too engrossing pursuits of this 
world, and gives us a firm and joyful expectation 
of a better and happier world to come. This 
consolatory, purifying and ennobling faith is found 
to be equally adapted at once to all the varieties of 
external condition, and to every period in the 
progress of the human species. It needs but to 
be fully understood and faithfully applied, to ac- 
complish all the wishes of philanthropy respecting 
the destinies of our race, whilst even he whose 
ignorance perverts and corrupts many things 
cannot study its records without being excited to 
works of charity, and aided sometimes almost in 
defiance of his speculative system in the improve- 
ment of his own character. 

Such, my brethren, is (in a general view of it) 
the blessing we have received. Let us not omit 
to notice the mode of its communication. Had 
the great prophet of God been received and 
honoured as he deserved to be, had his life been 
one of prosperity and worldly exaltation, and bis 
fulfilment of his Father's will required from him 



10 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



no sacrifices, the most distant ages must still have 
continued to bless him as the chosen instrument 
of a most beneficent divine dispensation ; as one 
who, under his Father's direction, well employed all 
his powers and distinctions in promoting the last- 
ing welfare of his brethren. I need not remind 
you how very far this is from having been the 
fact. I need not recall to you his life of suffer- 
ing, or his death of agony ; I need not repeat to 
you that his mission was to endure toil, and disap- 
pointment, and ingratitude, and persecution, and 
finally to shed his blood for the good of mankind. 
You know that his glory was reserved for him in 
heaven, that here he had to undergo the severest 
sufferings, with no other consolation than what 
piety towards his Father, and the prospect of the 
future triumphs and blessings of his religion, could 
afford. Great indeed was the love which he dis- 
played — great the love of God, " who spared not 
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, that 
with him he might also freely give us all good 
• things ! 33 

Shall anything then separate us from the love of 
Christ ? Shall anything — for such appears to be the 
meaning of this phrase, as employed by the apostle 
— cause us to renounce all participation in, or 
acknowledgment of, the blessing of his religion ?" 
It is very evident that we do so when we either 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



11 



deny his divine authority, or practically neglect 
his precepts and promises, giving ourselves up to 
those passions and pursuits which he condemns. 

When the apostle wrote, the chief cause from 
which an abandonment of the blessings of the 
Gospel was to be apprehended was persecution, to 
which therefore he almost exclusively refers, when 
he expresses in the words of the text his confi- 
dence in the stability of his Christian brethren ; 
yet when he concludes, " nor exaltation, nor de- 
pression, nor any other thing," he must probably 
be understood to speak of the dangerous influences 
of great prosperity or adversity, and he suggests 
to us an inquiry what else there may be by which 
we, any of us, are peculiarly tempted. 

Through the mercy of God we are saved from 
the temptations of persecution, and can only, as 
we admire the noble firmness of those who have 
passed through them with constancy, hope that^ 
in similar circumstances, we should not disgrace 
our profession, and pray that we may be enabled to 
meet, with a kindred fortitude, the trials of what- 
soever kind by which our faith may be exercised. 

Greatly as they differ in the manner of their 
approach, we cannot safely conclude that they are 
really much less dangerous than those, by triumph- 
ing over which martyrs and confessors have ac- 
quired their imperishable crown. The allurements 



12 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



of sinful pleasure,, and the seducing snares of vain 
amusement and fashionable folly, are more suc- 
cessful than the threats of power, or the terrors of 
persecution, in alienating the hearts of many from 
those objects which should engage their warmest 
affections, and excite their liveliest interests. The 
flowing stream of wealth and worldly prosperity 
more easily overthrows the landmarks of principle, 
and uproots the living fences of virtuous feeling, 
than the transient fury of the storm, with which 
they are assailed by tyrannical and wicked men, 
" The laughter of fools," though not so formidable, 
is practically not less difficult to be despised and 
defied than the dungeon or the stake ; and if we 
could compare the number of truths which have 
been abandoned, of virtuous sentiments which 
have been obliterated, of pious and holy affections 
whose rising flame has been extinguished, to avoid 
the contempt, the ridicule, and the sneers of those 
votaries of fashion and pleasure, who really con- 
stitute one of the most worthless portions of the 
community — with the sacrifices of conscience which 
have been extorted from human weakness by the 
fear of suffering, we should probably find the 
former as much exceeding in numerical amount, 
as it must appear to do in the degree of delin- 
quency. The lapse of time, though it has so 
strangely altered the aspect of external things, as 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



13 



to attach whatever danger there is of injury from 
society rather to the rejection than the acceptance 
of Christianity, has not, nevertheless, made it easy 
and suitable to the worldly-minded to receive the 
Gospel in its genuine influences, and it is too 
obvious how possible it is to separate ourselves alto- 
gether from the benefits of Christ's love, even whilst 
we consider it essential to be called his disciples. 
But to minds of a certain class, there is in these 
times a temptation positively to renounce the al- 
leged benefits of the Gospel, and to make light of 
the display of God's love through Christ Jesus, 
arising from the appearance of boldness of thought, 
and freedom of spirit, which such conduct carries 
with it, and from the gratification of intellectual 
pride, which the encouragement of sceptical doubts 
eminently affords. Though I cannot but regard 
as fit subjects for pity those who are deprived of 
the confidence which a belief in revelation can 
alone give, respecting the great objects of faith, I 
would willingly do my part to encourage the sin- 
cere, humble, and candid, in the hope, that whilst 
they act according to the light they possess, their 
Father will accept their services ; and though I 
must look upon them as deprived of most valuable 
sources of spiritual strength and consolation, I 
gladly acknowledge that much yet remains which, 
in the present state of knowledge, they may well 
c 



14 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



appropriate to themselves, and by the use of which 
they may make no small advances in true wisdom 
and virtue. He must have very false notions of 
Christianity who does not respect the disbelief 
which is the effect of strong though unreasonable 
impressions made by the corruptions of religion 
on the better feelings of the heart, or of any de- 
liberate and calm decision of the judgment, how- 
ever contrary to the general sense of the wisest 
and best-judging part of mankind, as well as to 
our own deepest convictions : but if any unac- 
knowledged dislike of the restraints on the conduct 
which religion imposes, and which, though dic- 
tated by paternal kindness for our own real good, 
may, in their strictness, be repugnant to many 
who call themselves virtuous, because they have 
no love for gross excesses — if any levity, rashness, 
or pride, in opposing the sentiments of those 
deemed our superiors in knowledge and judgment 
— if any vain gratification in the ingenuity of 
pushing objections, or in the boldness of rendering 
ourselves obnoxious to the world in general, should, 
as is often the case, be justly ranked among the 
leading causes of our unbelief, or if we encourage 
a hesitating and sceptical habit, tending more to 
question than to apply important principles, and 
turning to the great topics of religion rather for 
the exercise of intellectual acumen, than the culti- 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 15 

vation of good dispositions and affections — there 
can be no presumption in pronouncing, that we 
incur a most serious responsibility. The gift of 
the Gospel involved in it the sufferings of many 
good men, who devoted themselves to its service. 
The great messenger of God himself, in finishing 
the work which was given him to do — in accom- 
plishing our deliverance from the power and misery 
of sin — was obliged, after the sacrifice, throughout 
his active life, of every outward good and every 
worldly blessing, to humble himself, so as to be- 
come obedient unto death, even the death of the 
Cross. The love which made him cheerfully sub- 
mit to all his Father's will cannot be thought 
lightly of : we are not redeemed with corruptible 
things, as silver and gold, from that degraded and 
wretched state of mind and conduct which was 
continued by tradition from one generation to 
another among our fathers, but by the precious 
blood of Christ. O, may we not be tempted to 
despise so great a salvation, but whilst we walk in 
the light of knowledge, and pursue the path of 
sober and rational inquiry, find the religion which 
can most effectually control our conduct, and 
which calls into most active exercise all our pure 
and benevolent affections, capable, also, of satis- 
fying our judgment, and securing our grateful and 
humble acceptation. 

c 2 



16 



ATTACHMENT TO OUR 



In few words, I shall now remind you, my bre- 
thren, how it is natural and requisite that we 
should show our sense of the blessings of the 
Gospel, and our determination that none of the 
changes of the world shall be able to separate us 
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. 

Our Master came to free us from the bondage 
of ignorance, and sin, and death ; to render acces- 
sible to all, those treasures of divine knowledge 
and pious sentiment which had previously been 
confined to the use of one people — putting an end 
to the temporary peculiarities of Judaism — and to 
add whatever improvements of precept, whatever 
further communications of truth, mankind, now 
emerging from childhood, might require for their 
further unassisted progress ; he came, by his whole 
life, to give us an example of the most exalted ex- 
cellence to which human nature can attain — and 
whilst he perfected that example in his death, to 
afford in his resurrection and certain active ex- 
istence after his departure from this world, at 
once a pledge and a pattern of that resurrection 
which he announced for his followers, with all the 
authority of his heavenly commission. From this 
account it plainly appears what must be expected 
from his disciples — to live under the constant 
influence of the principles of pure religion, and in 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



17 



the strict and habitual observance of his holy pre- 
cepts, loving and revering him, to cherish in their 
own hearts his spirit of piety and benevolence, and 
to act always with reference to that better state to 
which he directs their hopes. 

In a constant regard to the perfections and 
government of God, and a truly filial reverence 
and love towards him, producing cheerful obe- 
dience to his commands, humble resignation to his 
appointments, and genuine delight in the study of 
his works and plans ; in the heart which so many 
evil passions assail, and upon which so many un- 
worthy desires intrude, being guarded with un- 
ceasing watchfulness, and with daily care purified 
for his holy service ; in the sense of our common 
relationship to him who, though partial and tem- 
porary evil may be necessary for his providential 
dispensations, regards all his creatures with equal 
love, producing the most ardent zeal for the service 
of all our brethren, and especially for the promo- 
tion of truth, knowledge, and virtue, on which 
their happiness must chiefly depend ; in our high 
estimate of the treasures of the mind, and the 
graces of the heart and temper moderating our 
desires respecting external good ; and in the full 
conviction of a future existence — the cherished 
hope of the happiness it will afford to the pure 
and good — the prospect of the sweet re-union it 
c 3 



18 ATTACHMENT TO OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH. 

promises with all the objects of our virtuous affec- 
tions — soothing us under the pains, and giving us 
dignified composure amidst the sorrows, of life; 
in our just feeling and appreciation of the tran- 
scendent excellencies of our Lord's character, being 
shown by the sincerity of our efforts to transfuse 
them into our own ; and our warm and grateful 
love towards him, animating our desire to walk in 
his footsteps, promoting his work of unspeakable 
love towards mankind. Thus it is we can show 
that our profession of being disciples of Jesus 
is not made in vain, and that, though not called 
to those trials in which his early followers proved 
the power of their faith, we can, whilst contem- 
plating the scenes through which they passed, with 
sincerity, and with no vain affectation of despising 
what there is no probability of our being called 
to endure, but with a suitable reference in our 
thoughts to the different temptations which exer- 
cise us, express with the apostle a firm persuasion 
that " neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor exaltation, nor de- 
pression, nor any other thing, shall be able to sepa- 
rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH PRACTICALLY 
IMPORTANT. 



John xvii. 25, 26. 

" O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee : but I have 
known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 
And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare 
it ; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in 
them, and I in them." 

These are the concluding words of the prayer with 
which our Lord closed his last discourse to his 
disciples. When he says — " The world hath not 
known thee," he refers immediately to the great 
body of the Jewish people, and more especially to 
their rulers ; and what he affirms of them is, that 
they have not understood the purposes of God's 
providence in respect to the new dispensation of 
religion : they have not recognized his gracious 
plans — they have even rejected his messenger ; 
though furnished with abundant proofs of a divine 
commission. " But," Jesus goes on to say, " I 
have known thee," / have fully understood all 
thy will in what relates to the all-important mis- 
sion in which I am engaged, " and these," my 
disciples, " have known/ 3 have already been fully 



20 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



convinced, " that thou hast sent me. And I have 
declared unto them thy name/' I have made 
known to them, so far as they were as yet capable 
of receiving it, that doctrine concerning thee which 
is entrusted to me ; those just views of thy relation 
to thy creatures, and thy will respecting them 
which I am sent to communicate, " and I will de- 
clare it;" when they are fitter to receive them 
(after the resurrection), I will make yet further 
communications : " that the love wherewith thou 
lovest me may be in them," — that as by thy favour 
I have enjoyed extraordinary aids for publishing 
the glad tidings I have brought, they may, by the 
like favour, be assisted in the same glorious work 
— and I in them," — that they may also be com- 
pletely united with me, entering into my views, 
acting in my spirit, and carrying forward what I 
have commenced. 

This passage has suggested to my mind some 
reflections on the importance of the knowledge of 
God, and our duties in respect to it, which may, I 
hope, furnish us with profitable occupation for our 
present time. 

Our Lord here attributes the criminal rejection 
of his claims by his misguided countrymen to their 
"not knowing God," not understanding his cha- 
racter and will, so as to be capable of appreciating 
his plan in the Gospel dispensation. 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 



21 



The moral character of this ignorance, on the 
most important of all subjects, will, of course, vary 
according to the opportunities afforded to different 
individuals for obtaining knowledge, and according 
to the nature of the obstacles which may prevent 
their making a good use of the opportunities they 
possess. He who has never heard of a holy and 
perfect ruler of the universe, partakes not in his 
guilt, who, having been instructed from childhood 
in a divine religion, has yet never profited by its 
doctrines ; and he who is prevented from improving 
his knowledge only by indolence, or by a too eager 
devotion to worldly business, though guilty and 
justly answerable for his neglected opportunities, 
is yet by no means to be compared in guilt with 
that unhappy man whom pride, or the love of 
selfish gain or pleasure, and unwillingness to sub- 
mit to the restraints of duty, causes to reject the 
knowledge which is offered to him and pressed 
upon his attention. But amidst all these differ- 
ences of individual character, the general truth 
remains, that want of knowledge of God is a lead- 
ing cause of wrong conduct and moral corruption.- 
The natural propensities, external circumstances, 
and acquired habits of individuals, will so alter 
their several cases, as to produce all that variety 
which we observe in human character, even amongst 
those who have apparently the same means of im- 



22 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



provemeut ; but amidst this variety it is still always 
true that as, upon all subjects, right knowledge is 
the only secure foundation for wise and successful 
action — so, especially in what concerns our relation 
to God as our creator, governor, and judge, it is 
of the utmost consequence that we should be 
rightly informed respecting his nature, attributes, 
and plans — and it is by no means to be ex- 
pected, or even conceived of as possible, that we 
should attain to the happiness of which we are 
capable without a considerable share of such know- 
ledge. In order fully to understand and feel the 
importance of knowing God, we have but for a 
moment to turn our attention to the state of 
Pagans, whether in ancient times or even now, in 
those parts of the world to which the knowledge 
of the one only living and true God has not pene- 
trated. 

We can find scarcely any nation so degraded in 
its intellectual condition, as not to have recognized 
in the operations of nature the working of super- 
human power and intelligence. It is impossible 
for beings constituted as we are to contemplate 
effects which resemble the results of human plans 
and human passions, without referring them to 
analogous causes. To the ignorant man who as 
yet knows nothing of general laws, each striking 
change appears to be the consequence of some 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 



23 



sudden purpose, or transient emotion of a being 
exalted above bis own sphere, yet not essentially 
differing in character from bimself : and since it 
requires long study, minute observation, and supe- 
rior skill to discover tbe unity of purpose and 
harmony of action which prevail throughout the 
universe ; as there are many instances of apparent 
opposition, inconsistency and confusion — which 
are only explained when considerable advances 
have been made in science — it would seem to fol- 
low that the ignorant are very likely, even as the 
consequence of applying to the subject some 
thought and ingenuity, to imagine the world to be 
governed in its different parts by a number of 
more or less independent deities, whose wills and 
whose plans may vary and interfere with each 
other. Thus imagination assigns its gods to the 
heaven, the earth and the sea ; to the hills and to 
the vallies ; to the woods and to the cultivated 
plains ; to particular seasons, and to particular dis- 
tricts or nations : and what can be the effect of a 
belief in such contending powers, interfering pur- 
poses and limited resources, but to preclude alto- 
gether any real reverence for, or confidence in, any 
one being ; to represent the rulers of nature as 
weak, capricious, and liable to be thwarted; as 
influenced by motives no higher than our own, and 
subject to passions only more tempestuous and 



24 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



destructive than those of their votaries ? Nor is 
this the worst : for when the wrath of a deity is 
supposed to be manifested in the storms ; when 
the thunderbolt, famine and pestilence are re- 
garded as instruments of his vengeance, it is but 
an easy step to attribute to him also other human 
passions. In the conception of his worshippers he 
is such a one as themselves, only, as that which 
constitutes his exaltation, more ready to take 
offence, more fierce in his anger, more insatiable 
in his revenge, more irregular and more trium- 
phant in his lust. He becomes an example for 
the encouragement of every evil propensity, and 
in the fables which superstition believes, his ac- 
tions sanctify all which wisdom and virtue would 
most strongly prohibit. Even his worship may 
become the direct means of producing and encou- 
raging the most odious crimes. Is it wonderful 
that when such were the gods of the nations, it 
was accounted philosophy to deny their existence 
altogether ? Is it strange that as infant science 
began to make known general laws, and to exhibit 
numerous appearances as accounted for, or capable 
of being expressed, by a few principles, it should 
for a time seem like true wisdom to reject as 
superstition all reference to the agency of superior 
beings, and to mistake uniform results for inde- 
pendent and inherent powers ? No — we may well 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 



25 



maintain that a belief in some superior intelli- 
gence, a reference to some providential govern- 
ment and control over events, is essential to all 
that is most excellent and ennobling in human 
character; but it is equally certain that super- 
stition debases the mind and corrupts the heart ; 
that where the object of religious homage is weak, 
capricious and tyrannical, the confidence and reve- 
rence of piety can have no existence ; that where 
his actions are considered as the sport of passion, 
or the subject of a blind fate, he can be honoured 
only by the destruction of the feeling of moral 
obligation in his worshippers ; where crimes are 
ascribed to him which would disgrace humanity, 
the worst and lowest propensities of our frail 
nature will take encouragement from the example, 
and too many will be found eager to follow where 
a god is reported to have led the way. 

If we must look to paganism for the most 
shocking and debasing effects of not knowing God, 
we need however be at no loss for illustrations 
of the evils of such ignorance among those who 
have been favoured with greater advantages, and 
who have certainly made far nearer approaches to 
the truth. The Jews were taught to acknow- 
ledge and adore one only God, the Creator and 
Governor of the universe, uncontrolable in power, 
supreme in wisdom, holy, righteous and bene- 

D 



26 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



volent in his conduct towards his people : from 
these pure and sublime principles they derived 
unquestionable benefit, and were raised by them 
in their moral and social condition far above sur- 
rounding nations; but when, misunderstanding the 
purpose of their selection as a peculiar people, 
they imagined themselves the special favourites of 
heaven, and all other nations to be neglected or 
regarded with enmity, did not the evil effect of 
this great error manifest itself in arrogant as- 
sumptions of superiority, and in contempt or 
hatred, or at the least an entire abstinence from 
all good offices, towards those who belonged not to 
their privileged race? And when, mistaking the out- 
ward forms necessary to command the attention, 
and engage the interest, of an ignorant and carnal- 
minded people, in an early stage of their social 
progress, for the substance of that religion which 
they were only intended to assist in its operation 
— they imagined themselves safe by the observance 
of these forms, even in the neglect of justice, 
mercy and faithfulness, was not this ignorance 
of God's nature and plans productive of most 
serious and alarming evils ? So amongst our bre- 
thren of the Christian church. That the sincere 
and consistent of all sects and parties are greatly 
blessed in the possession of our holy faith, it 
would seem to me unreasonable and irreconcileable 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 27 

with plain facts, as well as illiberal, to doubt. 
There is much of what our Saviour has taught 
and commanded which cannot be mistaken, and 
his faithful followers never fail to exhibit in their 
conduct and characters some beautiful traces of 
their having learned of him. They are through 
his instructions animated to virtuous exertion, 
strengthened in temptation, consoled in sorrow, 
and inspired with the delightful hope of eternal 
blessedness. But if without being blinded by 
sectarian prejudice, and having our judgments 
perverted by party feeling, we cannot be insensible 
to the excellencies of our brethren, or refuse to 
acknowledge them as the fair fruits of the Chris- 
tian truths which they receive, neither can we 
avoid noticing in the characteristic peculiarities 
of different sects, manifest results of certain parts 
of their doctrinal system, which to our judgment 
may appear erroneous. The evil consequences of 
erroneous opinions may arise in two ways, either 
in the smaller proportion of those professing the 
opinions, or at least having been instructed in 
them, who attain to superior excellence of cha- 
racter, or in the bad qualities and wrong influences 
which tinge and modify the excellence which is 
attained. If religion is made chiefly to consist in 
a mysterious faith repugnant to our natural rea- 
son, although many of its beneficial influences 
d 2 



28 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



may remain unaffected, it becomes naturally of- 
fensive to the strongest minds, and drives num- 
bers of the most promising of those whom it 
should guide and control, into a scepticism which 
blights the best hopes and most ennobling affec- 
tions, and is too commonly accompanied by moral 
corruption; if religion is made to consist too 
much in external ceremonies and bodily morti- 
fications, or in attendance on services, giving 
money for certain approved purposes and other 
outward manifestations of zeal and piety, it will 
happen that such acts will by many be substituted 
for the feelings which they are supposed only to 
display, and that superstitious trust in the mere 
performance of ceremonial duties, or hypocritical 
pretensions to more interest in religion than is 
really possessed, will prevail to the injury of sin- 
cere piety and genuine goodness. Many may 
escape these unfavourable influences through pecu- 
liar advantages of education or natural disposition, 
but very many will suffer by them to a greater or 
less extent ; and whilst they exist, the mixture of 
error with truth, in what relates to God and our 
duties towards him, can never be deemed unim- 
portant. Granting God to be the one, undivided 
and alone perfect being that we believe him to be, 
the error of that great body of Christians whom 
we designate as the Trinitarians, though adopted 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 29 

by tKem with the best intentions and most honest 
convictions ; though originating only in obscure 
language and the false philosophy of a dark age 
attempting to express the important truth as to 
the degree in which God was with Jesus; and 
though that language be so uncertain in its mean- 
ing, that various shades of real opinion may shelter 
themselves under its use — notwithstanding I say 
all this, the error cannot be uninfluential. It is 
sufficiently injurious were it only in creating need- 
less mystery and perplexity to all reflecting per- 
sons. It is still more so by dividing religious 
affections which it is important to concentrate, 
embarrassing the mind with doubts as to which 
person of the Deity claims its gratitude for each 
particular gift, or ought to be petitioned for each 
particular blessing, and representing different 
divine attributes as in a manner opposing one 
another, and making a sort of compromise in 
the scheme of salvation, instead of all uniting 
to produce one harmonious and perfect plan. No 
doubt it must be acknowledged by all whom 
bigotry has not totally blinded, however strongly 
opposed to these sentiments, that there is very 
much of sincere piety and genuine goodness 
among Trinitarians. Sad indeed it would be if 
there were not — but does this doctrine tend as 
much to produce and to maintain true piety — is 
d 3 



30 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



it a view of tlie Divine Nature as satisfactory to 
the reason — affording as much assistance in the 
fulfilment of the first and great command, as 
much pleasure in the contemplation of the cha- 
racter and relation to us of our God and Father — 
as that which is opposed to it ? I humbly think 
not — and this is to think that men would be 
better for having their views of the Divine nature 
freed from this, which I apprehend to be an error. 
I need not apply at length the same kind of 
argument to the doctrine of Atonement, that of 
salvation by faith alone, or of the eternity of the 
torments of the wicked and unbelieving. They 
manifestly exercise a large influence on the minds 
of those who receive them. If they are true, 
this may probably be their intended and proper, 
as it appears to be their natural, influence ; but I 
join, — and I trust not rashly and presumptuously, 
but after endeavouring to obtain the needful 
knowledge, and making the best use of the 
powers of judging I possess, — with those who 
think they are not taught in Scripture, and are 
not doctrines of the Christian revelation. If I 
am right, those who maintain them, so far " do 
not know God f 3 and can I doubt such serious 
mistakes being injurious to them ? Can I hesi- 
tate to attribute directly to this cause, their ap- 
pearing to be more zealous for their own creed 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 



31 



than for the great practical truths and common 
principles of our religion, their unseemly boldness 
in consigning their brethren to future perdition, 
and their excluding from the range of a charity, 
which in other respects deserves all praise, those 
who cannot be brought to accept their creed ? 
Can I fail to perceive the practical danger to 
many minds — though many escape it — of reli- 
ance on the merits of another, and of denying 
holy dispositions and virtuous actions to be the 
sources and means of that Heavenly happiness to 
which the Gospel teaches us to aspire ? Assuredly, 
my brethren, "the knowledge of God" is a great 
privilege and blessing — it cannot be indifferent 
whether, in any particular, we possess it or not. 
All good influences, all holy desires, all benevolent 
feelings, all cheering hopes, naturally spring from 
right views of his attributes, government, and de- 
signs, whilst we cannot possibly think him to be, 
to require, or to decree, otherwise than according 
to the truth, without our own feelings towards him 
or towards our fellow- creatures being thereby 
changed, and of course changed for the worse. 
Error cannot be harmless — it may be free from 
moral guilt. It may be restrained and counter- 
acted by the truths with which it is combined, so 
as still to leave the character worthy of much re- 
spect and love ; and since we are all so liable to 



32 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



error, and the most favourably situated still pro- 
bably retain so many errors, it would be most 
presumptuous in us to condemn our brethren be- 
cause their feelings do not precisely agree with 
ours ; but there is no presumption in the convic- 
tion that truth is man's highest good, the imme- 
diate source of all improvement, both in his mental 
and external condition — especially that knowing 
God, the author of his being, the disposer of his 
lot, the source of all his hopes and fears, must 
necessarily be for his good, whilst no mistake or 
false opinion respecting this being and his relation 
to us can fail of injuring either our characters or 
our happiness. 

Let us now seriously inquire what duties appear 
to be incumbent upon us in consequence of that 
view of the real practical importance of all Divine 
truth which I have endeavoured to establish and 
to impress upon your minds. If we could be ab- 
solutely and infallibly sure of the truth of our 
own opinions, it would immediately follow, from 
our conviction that the world's not knowing God 
is a principal cause of the prevalence of vice and 
misery, that we must spread the knowledge we 
possess by all possible means — with all the zeal 
which our desire to limit the sum of vice and 
misery would naturally produce in every benevo- 
lent mind. Even thus we should not be justified 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 



33 



in employing violence, or any kind of constraint or 
mere worldly influence, because these are not pos- 
sible means of diffusing the convictions of our own 
minds ; they may produce exterior conformity 
and verbal unity, but they never did or could 
produce the agreement of minds in receiving the 
same opinions, and they destroy the sincerity and 
corrupt the moral integrity of those whom they 
influence. 

Even the certainty of the truth of our own views, 
then, could only in reason induce us, with untiring 
zeal and activity, in the spirit of love, by the in- 
strumentality of argument and persuasion, recom- 
mending them only as the means of good and 
the source of pleasure to those who should receive 
them, to diffuse them through society : and let me 
entreat your attention to the inquiry, whether we 
are bound to anything less than this in the condi- 
tion in which we actually stand. It is quite true 
that no human being can be absolutely certain, so 
as to be independent of all fact or argument which 
may be adduced against it, of the truth of any 
opinion he adopts, unless he have a feeling of its 
being communicated to him by Revelation, ac- 
companied by some unequivocal external sign of 
his receiving such communication, so exhibited 
that others, as well as himself, can judge of its 
reality and miraculous character. This is the only 



34 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



test which reason, or the history of Revelation, 
sanctions for distinguishing a divine communica- 
tion, and such communication alone constitutes 
infallibility. Without such a sign we can have 
no sufficient security against being ourselves mis- 
led by the delusions of fancy, much less can we 
have any claim on the submission of others to our 
authority ; and so far as we depend upon ourselves, 
we our undoubtedly all fallible beings — a sufficient 
reason against our ever attempting to guide the 
opinions of others by our authority or will : but if 
truth be an object of supreme importance, if it be 
attainable only by the examination of evidence, 
(and all men and all bodies of men, being fallible, 
there is no rule of faith so established as to be re- 
ceived without examination,) then it plainly follows 
that every man must seek out truth for himself, 
and that in proportion as he values his opinions, and 
is satisfied with their evidence, he ought to feel 
impelled to communicate them to others — not to 
impose them, but to recommend the reasons which 
have satisfied him, to the consideration of others : 
nor can it be doubtful, that in this process truth 
must gradually prevail over prejudice and error, 
until, in the sublime language of prophecy, the 
""earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord 
as the waters cover the depths of the sea." 

Truths relating to God, the mind, and things 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 



35 



unseen, never spread so rapidly as the truths of 
physical science, which can be established by ex- 
periments immediately appealing to the senses ; 
but they are not the less truths — their practical 
importance is even greater than that of the other 
class, and their tendency to diffuse themselves, as 
the result of inquiry, is not less certain. He who 
examines for himself, and makes use of the means 
of knowledge he possesses, will seldom fail of 
arriving at a conclusion satisfactory to his own 
mind. He will seldom fail of improving his con- 
dition in respect of real knowledge, and there can 
be no more desirable state of feeling than a sincere 
and disinterested desire to obtain truth, and to 
free ourselves from whatever prejudices and undue 
influences obstruct our pursuit of it. We may 
still, after our best efforts, be abundantly con- 
scious of our liability to err, and may feel the 
folly of our pretending to that kind of certainty 
which could be supposed to authorize us to pre- 
vent others from pursuing their own course ; but 
we cannot reflect and examine without thinking 
our opinions worthy of attention, and we may 
reasonably be so confident of the supreme value of 
truth, as to be warmly interested in making 
known whatever appears to us to have that cha- 
racter. 

He who is duly conscious of his own fallibility, 



36 



RELIGIOUS TRUTH 



and has a proper respect for the opinions of 
others, whose right to judge, and general capa- 
city of judging well, he cannot think less than his 
own, though he may suppose them prejudiced 
or misled on a particular subject, must neces- 
sarily be not only incapable of resorting to vio- 
lence for the support of opinions, but incapable of 
supposing his own opinions absolutely essential : 
he may nevertheless be firmly convinced of the 
truth and value of his opinions, and may feel a 
lively and earnest zeal to promote them. The 
distinction is, that he can only wish to promote 
them by manifesting their truth and their good 
influences ; that he can only desire to make them 
really acceptable to the minds of others, not to 
have them submitted to and professed; that he can 
only value them for the sake of the effects which he 
considers them as calculated to produce; he can 
never wish to bring others anymore than he can con- 
sent to place himself under the trammels of a creed. 

Men act as if they thought that God must be 
offended at the errors of his frail creatures, and 
that they, being entitled to consider themselves as 
free from error, and as judges in God's behalf, are 
called upon to vindicate his cause, and to denounce 
his vengeance against those who will not take 
their guidance to the knowledge of his mind and 
will. Enlightened Christian zeal is very different 



PRACTICALLY IMPORTANT. 37 

from this : it is the full conviction that the know- 
ledge of the character, perfections and plans of 
God, the author of our being, our supreme Go- 
vernor, and the source of all the good we possess 
or can hope for, is the most important knowledge 
that human beings can obtain, and that errors on 
these subjects are principal sources of the conduct, 
dispositions, and affections which are destructive 
of human happiness ; that the mission of Jesus 
Christ was to make known unto us the Father — 
to declare the truth concerning his nature, his 
will, and his designs respecting his rational crea- 
tures, and to exhibit the beautiful and admirable 
results of the possession and constant feeling of 
this truth in discourses and conduct, which afford 
the most perfect guidance by instruction and ex- 
ample to piety, faith and goodness ; that a right 
apprehension of our Saviour's instructions and ex- 
ample, by which we can alone derive from them 
the full benefit they were intended to confer, is to 
be obtained by examination and discussion of the 
Christian Scriptures, and that those who have 
already examined, reflected, and satisfied their own 
minds, are bound by every feeling of benevolence 
towards their fellow-creatures, of respect for the 
divine plans, and of love for what is good and 
right, to adopt means for making known and 
recommending what they believe. 

E 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 



Hosea xi. 9. 
" I am God and not man." 

When the prophet Hosea represents the Almighty 
as addressing these words to the Israelites, the 
meaning, as we collect it from the context, is, that 
God is incapable of being affected by human pas- 
sions, and pursues the course dictated by his own 
perfections, unmoved by their agitations and inac- 
cessible to their influences. 

The sentiment is just, sublime, and practically 
important. In applying ourselves to the pursuit 
of that knowledge, which is the most interesting, 
useful and ennobling of all human attainments — 
the knowledge of the attributes and character of 
the great first cause and Governor of all things, 
the Author of our existence, and the Supreme 
Disposer of our lot — there is no error into which 
we are so much in danger of falling as that of 
attributing our own feelings, passions and weak- 
e 2 



40 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOB. 

nesses to the exalted object of our contemplations, 
and judging of his dealings with his creatures as if 
he were, if not altogether, yet almost such an one 
as ourselves. 

This by no means arises from a deficiency of 
reverence for his greatness, or from a bold pre- 
sumptuous attempt to bring him down to our 
level j but from the want of proper attention and 
reflection in separating whatever partakes of 
human weakness and imperfection from our con- 
ceptions of him, and from the habit too com- 
monly indulged in of theorizing, or hastily founding 
abstract and universal truths on passages of Scrip- 
ture, which merely express the Divine conduct in 
particular instances in language derived from 
human feelings, in order that it might be intel- 
ligible even to the ignorant and uncultivated 
among human beings. 

In reference to an error which seems to me to 
be so very common, and against which my present 
object calls upon me particularly to guard you, I 
introduce this discourse on the perfections of the 
Deity, as they respect the topics of religious con- 
troversy, with the solemn words which the prophet 
attributes to God himself, expressing the exaltation 
aud glory of his attributes, and the inconceivable 
distance which separates him from his frail and 
weak creatures — " I am God and not man." 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 41 

To acquire whatever knowledge by Nature or 
Revelation we are made capable of acquiring re- 
specting our great Creator and Governor, is cer- 
tainly not less our duty than it must be our 
delight ; and as upon this knowledge our religious 
feelings, hopes and expectations must be founded, 
its general correctness, as far as it goes, must be 
of the most serious importance to us, so as to 
demand our most searching and anxious in- 
vestigation. Yet at the same time there is a 
degree of reverence due to the subject, which 
should restrain us from wild and unprofitable 
speculation, and any just consideration of the 
weakness of our own nature must lead us to look 
for a portion of mystery from which all our 
endeavours to escape must ever be in vain. To 
understand the Almighty unto perfection is in- 
deed above our powers and beyond our reasonable 
hopes. But we are well aware that on the general 
correctness of our notions respecting his attributes, 
character and dealings with us, must depend our 
maintaining those feelings towards him which be- 
come our situation, and are fitted to have a salu- 
tary influence on our conduct ; consequently that 
to hope for some clear and satisfactory information 
cannot be presumptuous, and to use the best 
means in our power for ascertaining what is really 
to be learned, especially from the records of Reve- 
e 3 



42 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

lation, is a duty which no one who values religion 
can consistently disclaim. 

In our endeavours to derive from the Scriptures 
just notions of the divine perfections, we shall 
find it necessary to attend to the circumstance, 
that there are passages applicable to the subject of 
two kinds, in the one of which simple absolute 
truths are expressed as distinctly as the nature 
of human language will allow : in the other the 
relations of God to his creatures, and his conduct 
to them in particular instances, are explained in 
such a manner as is adapted to human feelings 
and the weakness of human reason, and espe- 
cially to the ideas and sentiments of those (being 
mostly in a very rude and ignorant state) to whom 
the books were first addressed. Now with respect 
to passages of the latter class, it is evident in the 
first place that all such seemingly general asser- 
tions, as are from the circumstances of the case 
manifestly intended only to express the Divine 
conduct or purpose in a particular instance, are to 
be excluded from our account, with all such ex- 
pressions as are decidedly anthropomorphitical, i. e. 
representing the conduct or purposes of God as if 
he were under the influence of human passions or 
affections, as when it is stated that he repented of 
having done any thing. Secondly, that declarations 
respecting the relations of God to his creatures, the 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 43 



nature of his moral government, and the manner 
in which he regards human conduct, are to be 
understood in consistency with those absolute 
truths respecting his own character and attributes 
which admit of no modification or interference, 
and which must be taken as the fundamental part 
of our knowledge respecting him. 

Thus our notions of the divine attributes and 
character, will be either practical, which is when 
we consider them in reference to the conduct we 
ought to pursue, applying for our guidance the 
promises and threatenings of Scripture, as resulting 
from his holiness, justice, mercy, and faithfulness 
— and the various excitements to love, revere, and 
obey him, as arising from the consideration of his 
goodness, his majesty, his eternity and unchange- 
ableness, his omniscience and his universal provi- 
dence — or philosophical, which is, when they are 
viewed in relation to each other, to the glory of 
his nature, and the theory of religion. That the 
Scriptures teach us to ascribe certain attributes to 
the Supreme Being, and apply these in certain 
circumstances for our practical benefit, is allowed 
by all parties, and there can be no question but 
that sincere Christians of all parties derive advan- 
tage and comfort from the contemplation of them ; 
but it has nevertheless become a matter of con- 
troversy, how the divine perfections are to be re- 



44 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

conciled to each other and made to bear upon the 
doctrines of religion, as affording arguments for, 
or against, the probability of particular views of 
the nature of Gospel Salvation ; and such contro- 
versy cannot but be esteemed of very high and 
serious importance. In treating of it, we shall 
find the value of these introductory observations, 
for it is plain that we here have to do with the di- 
vine attributes in their absolute nature, and their 
relation to each other, not with their practical ap- 
plication to men's ordinary wants, in making which, 
the language of Scripture is so often accommo- 
dated to the conceptions of ignorant men ; and by 
attention to what has been said, we shall, I hope, 
gain these advantages : first, that we shall avoid 
that great source of error in such inquiries, appro- 
priating to our purpose passages from Scripture, 
which were written entirely with a view to God's 
dealings in particular instances, and speak of him, 
for the sake of being more intelligible, as if he 
were influenced by human feelings — but were 
never designed to explain the principles of his 
government, or to convey abstract truths respect- 
ing his character : and, secondly, that we shall be 
able more readily and more correctly to distinguish 
between those attributes which are essential parts 
of the divine nature, and may be reasoned upon as 
such, and those which are ascribed to God in 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 45 

Scripture only in a relative sense, and must be 
resolved into, and explained in consistency with 
the former. 

The perfections of God are usually divided into 
two classes, natural and moral ; not that the latter 
are, less than the former, an essential part of the 
Divine nature, or that any real difference can be 
said to exist between the two classes ; but merely 
as a matter of convenience in our consideration of 
them. The former including faculties and modes 
or properties of existence, as power, vjisdom, eter- 
nity, omnipresence, immutability, and constant hap- 
piness. The latter, such qualities as are analogous 
to those which constitute moral character in 
human beings, as benevolence, holiness, justice, 
faithfulness, mercy. The inquiries in which we are 
now engaging are concerned exclusively with the 
moral attributes, and let us first consider how 
they are usually understood, and what effects are 
attributed to them. 

Holiness consists in the approbation of what is 
good, and the abhorrence of what is wicked, and ac- 
cording to the common notion, as a perfection of 
God, it implies that there is an essential, eternal, 
necessary difference between sin and what is good, 
to recognise which, with approval of the one and 
abhorrence of the other, constitutes the quality of 
holiness; so that all who in any degree commit 



46 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OP GOD. 

sin, are necessarily objects of hatred to a holy 
being, and must be under his wrath, unless by 
some means relieved from it, and brought within 
the influence of his mercy. The essential quality 
of holiness is understood to be perfect hatred of 
sin as such, and of all who are in any degree guilty 
of it. 

Then, as to justice, it is believed, also, to be a 
distinct, independent attribute of Deity, which con- 
sists in perceiving what belongs, or is due, to every 
action, and in appropriating the reward or punish- 
ment which each calls for. It is assumed, that 
the nature of sin is so malignant, that infinite 
misery belongs, as a punishment, to every sin, and 
that justice absolutely requires its infliction — so 
that God would cease to be a holy being if he did 
not regard all sinners with hatred and abhorrence 
— he would cease to be a just being if he did not 
desire to inflict upon them the punishment be- 
longing to their sins. According to this view a 
disposition to inflict pain on the creatures of his 
hand is a part of the perfection of the Deity, and 
constitutes a portion of his glory. God is so 
bound to punishment, that to remit it would be a 
stain on his own perfections. He must inflict it, 
and must be conscious of its displaying his glory. 
He must even find his happiness in inflicting it, 
otherwise the possession of the highest excellence 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 47 

would interfere with perfect and unchangeable 
felicity. But he possesses likewise the attribute of 
benevolence, which is a constant desire to com- 
municate happiness in every possible way, and one 
glorious branch of which — mercy — consists ex- 
pressly in a disposition to pardon sin and remit 
its punishment. How then are we to reconcile 
these perfections ? How is a perfect hatred of sin 
and a constant necessary disposition to punish it, 
to be conceived of as co-existing with a constant 
inclination to pardon it, and remit its penalty ? 
or how can the utmost desire to produce the hap- 
piness of all beings be joined with an absolute 
hatred of every violation of perfect rectitude, and 
of all who are chargeable with any such trans- 
gression, i. e. of all creatures ? 

Perfect wisdom and irresistible power being 
acknowledged divine attributes, and God himself 
alone existing necessarily, one is tempted to won- 
der that sin is not annihilated, and benevolence , 
being always united with the perfections just men- 
tioned, it seems difficult to account for, that it 
should ever have been allowed to come into ex- 
istence. It is answered that this could not have 
been prevented, without taking away man's free 
agency ; but was this quality in any way worth 
the tremendous sacrifice made for its sake, espe- 
cially considering that it is believed that after the 



48 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 



first sin only a tainted nature descended to the 
remainder of the race ? 

But God provided a remedy for the evil which 
by means of sin was introduced ; he provided for 
salvation notwithstanding sin, and in perfect con- 
sistency with his own holiness and justice, his own 
Son an equal partaker in his godhead, becoming 
also truly a man, and suffering, as man, the full 
penalty of sin, in order that he might buy off 
from punishment those who, through faith in him, 
can/partake in the merit of his death. Such is 
the theory, without pretending to settle the im- 
portant question as to the extent to which the 
merits of Christ can be applied, a question which 
we are content to leave to be discussed by those 
who find no other objection to the system. Nei- 
ther will I now urge the strange incompatibility 
of ideas involved in the union of God and man — 
the inconsistency, that if the human nature only 
suffered, the suffering was by the supposition of 
no value ; whilst for a really divine being to suffer, 
is contradictory and absurd ; or the entire want of 
direct Scriptural support for either the union of 
the two natures, or the Deity of the Son. It will 
be quite enough, at present, to observe, that God's 
justice and holiness must render him entirely in- 
capable of accepting the punishment of the inno- 
cent instead of the guilty, and would be so far 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 49 

from being satisfied by such a scheme, that it 
could only be regarded by him as a pure aggrava- 
tion of evil. If justice really renders necessary a 
full payment for sin in punishment, then it is from 
the sinner, and him only, that it requires, and can 
accept, this payment. It is not conceivable that 
the suffering of another can have any relation to 
my sin. This notion of vicarious suffering ori- 
ginates in the rudest ideas of the most uncultivated 
men in the most barbarous times. In the degree 
in which it has been occasionally practised by 
human beings, it is felt to be degrading to their 
rational nature, and offensive alike to justice and 
humanity. Yet such conduct we are to attribute 
as a perfection to the great supreme, and to con- 
template as a means of elevating our conceptions 
of his holiness. But there is another theoretical de- 
fect in the system which requires our notice. It 
is affirmed, that God's holiness consists in an in- 
variable approbation of what is good, and hatred 
of sin and evil. It is thus supposed, that good 
and evil are qualities independent of the Divine 
will or appointment, having in themselves a na- 
tural inherent claim to approbation and condem- 
nation, which is perceived and acknowledged by 
all minds possessing holiness ; so that being good 
or evil, and being holy or the contrary, are relative 
qualities ; but where, we may be allowed to ask, 

F 



50 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

is the solid foundation for all this theory ? It is 
far more natural to understand the words good 
and right, evil and wrong, as describing, not the 
abstract nature of the action, but its effects on 
some being or beings. It is only by their effects 
that virtue and vice can possibly be known to us. 
By virtue we understand that which, according to 
the actual constitution of the human mind and of 
external things, is alone capable of constituting 
the real preponderating and ultimate happiness of 
a human being. It is that which is really adapted 
to our nature, and which the general course of the 
providence of God in this world, as well as his 
purposes in another, favours and sanctions. Vice, 
on the contrary, consists of whatever is really un- 
united to bestow happiness on such beings as we 
are, and though exhibiting an outward show of 
pleasure, is really upon the whole and ultimately 
a cause of misery to those who indulge in it. 
Such a definition of virtue and vice is at least 
intelligible. None but the most inconsiderate or 
dishonest could so pervert it as to represent it as 
authorising us to do whatever we please, and to 
make our own inclinations or interests our rule of 
right. It is, on the contrary, distinctly laid down 
that our Maker has given to our race a bodily and 
mental constitution, differing indeed in minute 
particulars in different individuals, but in its lead- 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 51 

ing features common to us all ; according to which 
constitution there is but one kind of actions, dis- 
positions and affections capable of conferring real 
happiness, the highest happiness of which our 
nature is capable, and this kind is what we call 
virtuous; all others, though they may deceive us 
with the appearance of good, are really pernicious. 
The right or virtuous course is then a reality, 
which may or may not be found out, according as 
we have or have not employed judicious means, or 
received sufficient assistance ; but it always exists, 
and our greatest good always consists in knowing 
and adhering to it. This view of virtue does not 
indeed make its existence and qualities inde- 
pendent of God himself, and does not make our 
approbation of it altogether distinct from its con- 
sequences ; but these in fact are dreams of theo- 
retical moralists, who have fancied they were 
serving the interests of virtue by representing 
good and evil as essential, independent distinctions 
of actions, which every morally-constituted mind 
necessarily perceives. The principles of morality 
are as unchangeable as the nature of man, for 
they depend upon that nature. To represent them 
as beyond the control of the infinitely bene- 
volent and wise Deity is by no means to add 
to their force, or to make them more deserving of 
our reverence, and practically does in fact render 
f 2 



52 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

them unintelligible, and therefore unconvincing. 
We see another reason against admitting the 
eternal necessary distinction of good and evil, as 
required to be believed by the reputedly orthodox 
system, if we consider that virtue and vice cannot 
even be conceived of, except in connection with 
the actions and dispositions of created beings, and 
consequently their eternal existence is manifestly 
absurd. The many instances also in which the 
same actions are more or less virtuous or vicious, 
according to the force of the inducements or 
temptations, and the state of mind from which 
they spring, might serve sufficiently to expose 
the mistake of imagining such strong and de- 
cided lines to separate good from evil, and the 
distinctions between them to be so fixed in the 
nature of things as is often represented. 

The notion of justice above proposed, and which 
I apprehend to be absolutely essential to the 
whole scheme of salvation, according to the popular 
theology, namely, that it consists in perceiving 
reward and punishment to be due to certain ac- 
tions or courses of conduct, and in being disposed 
to bestow them accordingly, is liable to most 
serious objections, which one would think could 
hardly fail to strike a reflecting mind. 

In the first place, it does not at all appear why 
or how the reward and punishment become due ; 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OP GOD. 53 

there is still an idea of merit implied as being in 
some way antecedently acquired, and yet when we 
search into the matter we can find no foundation 
on which it can be made to rest. The disposition 
called justice supposes the merit or demerit. If 
this consist in the tendency of actions to produce 
good or evil effects, happiness or misery to the 
agent or those affected by them, then justice 
resolves itself in a form of benevolence; if the 
merit be something essentially different from this, 
we require to know what it is, and we have alread} 7 
seen that no satisfactory answer can be given. 
We have words but no ideas connected with them. 
Again, justice, as commonly understood, consists in 
a disposition to pay a share of good or evil, to 
which previous actions have entitled some agent, 
and it is maintained that such is the nature of sin, 
that it makes everlasting misery due to every one 
who commits it. Some have attempted to explain 
this, by saying that sin being an offence against an 
infinite being, must be an infinite evil, and 
requires infinite punishment ; but we must re- 
member that the very theory assumed is, that sin 
is an evil in itself, not as a violation of God's 
command, and that it belongs to God's holiness 
to perceive and feel this evil; but the evil would 
exist even if he did not perceive it, consequently 
the evil (according to this theory) does not consist 
f 3 



54 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

in an offence against him — and if it did, there is 
no possible connection between the perfection of 
the being offended and the nature of the creature 
committing the offence, that should make the 
offence partake of infinity. On the contrary, the 
contrast between the weakness, frailty, and transi- 
toriness of the creature, and the absolute perfec- 
tion and eternal duration of the judge, strikes us 
most forcibly as a reason for a greater degree of 
leniency than could otherwise have been thought 
of. The idea of such a creature as man having it 
in his power to deserve either infinite punishment 
or permanent reward is totally inadmissible ; we 
cannot bring ourselves to conceive of any such 
relation between the acts of our transient lives, 
and future unmeasurable duration. God, in his 
great goodness, may intend us for permanent 
bliss, in his wisdom and kindness he may chasten 
us in preparation for it ; but if he design for us 
eternal misery, the principle according to which 
this necessarily belongs to us never has been, or 
can be, explained so as to be felt to be just by 
human minds. 

It is generally felt and acknowledged, that our 
very best services, and the best that we can even 
conceive human beings to offer, could do nothing 
towards entitling us to heavenly rewards — that 
what we are encouraged to hope for, we owe en- 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 55 

tirely to the free mercy of our Heavenly Father — 
and it ought to be quite as evident that the sins 
of frail mortals cannot deserve or render proper 
eternal punishment : there can be no natural fit- 
ness or reasonableness found in such an allotment. 
If the doctrine be true, it must be admitted as the 
appointment, which it would be folly in us to 
arraign, of one who has all power in his hands, 
and does according to his will in heaven and on 
earth ; but we may reasonably require very strong 
evidence of its truth, and this evidence I must 
altogether deny to have any existence. 

I observe again, that if punishment and reward 
are not administered with a view to their results, 
and consequently do not resolve themselves into 
an application of benevolence, they are not capable 
of being in any way accounted for; but punish- 
ment assumes very much the aspect of revenge — 
reward, of partiality and favouritism. Among 
human beings we refuse to recognize as consistent 
with justice, any act which has not a direct ten- 
dency to produce good. The payment of crime with 
suffering, which has no effect in improving the 
sufferer, or protecting society, we regard with just 
abhorrence, and we require penalties not merely 
to be proved to be useful, but to be proved to 
effect their good purposes at the least possible 
expense of suffering inflicted — and are we not 



56 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

ashamed to cherish these just and humane views 
in reference to the conduct of our fellow-creatures, 
if we never think of applying them in justification 
of the character and government of our supreme 
ruler? Can we any longer dare to attribute to 
God as a perfection — to that God whose benevo- 
lence all nature proclaims, and who is revealed to 
us in Scripture as a God of love — our Heavenly 
Father, who is through Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 
unto men, — a quality which has at first been con- 
ceived by ignorant men in barbarous times, and 
which, in judging of our fellow men, we have 
learned to regard with just condemnation and ab- 
horrence ? Such is the charge which we find our- 
selves compelled to bring against the system called 
orthodox. It interprets the perfections of God 
according to low and unworthy notions, which 
might be excusable in ignorant times, and might 
naturally, perhaps, occur in the first attempt at 
bringing such high subjects within the measure of 
human thought, but which can no longer be ex- 
pected to satisfy, when we have learned to apply 
purer and higher principles even to the estimate 
of human conduct. 

The man who, in judging the actions of a fel- 
low-creature, feels himself bound to make allow- 
ances for the weakness of his nature, and the force 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 57 

of the temptation to which he was exposed, cannot 
well suppose the benevolent Creator, who knoweth 
our frame, to require from his creatures unblem- 
ished excellence, and to be prepared to punish 
them severely for every deficiency. He who can 
only justify his own punishment of those who may 
in any degree be under his control, by the good 
effects it is reasonably to be expected to produce, 
who would think it cruelty to inflict any useless 
suffering, and would regard with abhorrence the 
idea of exacting a payment for crime, will not 
readily believe that God is bound to attach endless 
misery as the penalty of every fault — that it can 
be consistent with his nature, or that he can pos- 
sibly be under any obligation to inflict suffering, 
without any reference to good which it is calcu- 
lated to effect. 

In the common notion of the conduct of God 
in the Scheme of Human Salvation, there is a per- 
petual clashing and interfering of opposing attri- 
butes. His holiness causes him to hate sin, and 
to look on all who have been guilty of it with ab- 
horrence ; his justice disposes him to the punish- 
ment of sin, and will not suffer him to be content 
without the full amount of punishment due to 
every offence : his goodness inclines him to regard 
with kindness all the creatures he has made, and 
his mercy especially disposes him to overlook their 



58 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

faults, and to compassionate their weakness and 
errors. He is represented as obliged, by justice, 
to require the full amount of punishment, even 
though it should be inflicted on the innocent, 
instead of the guilty — and as yielding to mercy 
only so far, as to pardon those for whose sins the 
penalty was endured. I must confess my inability 
to see in such conduct the beauty and excellence 
either of justice or mercy. It would seem to me 
more accordant with justice, if the guilty them- 
selves, not their substitutes, were punished — it 
would better conform to my notion of mercy, if 
there were a real remission of a penalty, not a 
mere transference of it, to another party. 

When we endeavour to understand the Divine 
Nature, whether from reason or scripture, we are 
irresistibly led to the conclusion, that all the moral 
attributes centre in goodness, and are to be ex- 
plained but as manifestations of it. There is no 
other perfection which the voice of Nature so cer- 
tainly proclaims ; there is no other which Revela- 
tion with equal clearness affirms. We only exalt 
our conceptions of holiness and justice, by under- 
standing them to be in fall and perfect accordance 
with benevolence, whilst we cannot suppose them 
to require or to imply anything inconsistent with 
it, without destroying the harmony of the Divine 
character and counsels. 



THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 59 

We are assured that " God is love/' that " he is 
good unto all, and that his tender mercies are over 
all his works that " he is our heavenly father," 
that " he is slow to anger, and plenteous in com- 
passion." That his own free and unsolicited good- 
ness originated the scheme of Salvation, and that 
he is, through Christ, reconciling the world unto 
himself, not imputing their transgressions unto 
men. 

If we will only understand holiness and justice 
in such a sense as we should think honourable to 
a human being, and will cease to attribute to God 
as a perfection, a quality which we should abhor 
and condemn in a fellow man, we shall find no 
difficulty in harmonising together the Divine per- 
fections — and the view we shall obtain of God's 
government, and of his conduct towards his crea- 
tures, will be such as, if not to conform with the 
decisions of creeds, to be agreeable to our reason 
and best feelings, calculated for the promotion of 
virtue, and such as to render religion really vene- 
rable and lovely. 

All the moral attributes of Deity resolve them- 
selves into goodness. Holiness is but the contem- 
plation of moral qualities with approbation, as the 
sources of happiness to rational creatures; justice 
is only the application of benevolence in the ad- 
ministration of rewards and punishments, in such 



60 THE MORAL PERFECTIONS OF GOD. 

a manner as ultimately to produce the greatest 
possible good to all moral agents, whilst mercy is 
the remission of penalties, where a suitable and 
real change in the mind of the offender makes 
them no longer necessary for that benevolent 
purpose, for which alone they are proposed or 
inflicted. 

This, my friends, is a great subject of religious 
inquiry, upon which it seems to me that the senti- 
ments of Unitarian Christians possess so decided a 
superiority, that few can refuse to wish them true, 
even if they have not the satisfaction of perceiving 
that they are so. Our views of the perfections 
of God are simple, harmonious, and beautiful. 
They are sanctioned by all the appearances of na- 
ture. They alone give due weight to those decla- 
rations of Scripture, upon which the sacred writers 
themselves have dwelt the most strongly, and re- 
move all inconsistency and confusion from the 
subject. They alone are calculated to produce the 
" perfect love which casteth out fear/ ■ and whilst 
they take away the causes for uneasy or degrading 
fear, blend ardent love with filial reverence, and 
unchanging trust with devout submission. They 
represent the Divine Nature, such that it is in- 
deed bliss to know it, and open an exhaustless 
store of whatever is lovely, interesting, or en- 
nobling, to the contemplative and pious mind. 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY OF UNI- 
TARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Part I. — Principles by which we Judge. 

Ephesians ii. 10. 

" For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk 
in them." 

Christians are described as being the workman- 
ship of God, because he has separated them from 
the rest of the world, and bestowed upon them 
their peculiar privileges and advantages. He did 
this by the agency of Jesus Christ, the messenger 
of his grace to mankind, in or through whom, 
therefore, they are said to have been spiritually 
created — formed by the precepts and promises he 
communicated, and a suitable change effected in 
their hearts and minds. The end of this new 
creation the apostle plainly declares ; it was to pro- 
duce in them good works, in which God designed 
that they should walk, or for walking in which he 
had, by the instructions of the Gospel, fitted them. 

G 



62 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



If this account of the nature and purpose of our 
divine religion, which seems to me to find some 
confirmation in every part of the New Testament, 
be the true one, and the moral and practical in- 
fluences of Christianity be indeed its most impor- 
tant, its essential part, — then it would seem to 
follow, that we may obtain a pretty strong pre- 
sumptive argument in favour of, or against, the 
truth of any particular doctrinal views of our reli- 
gion, from a fair examination of their tendency. 

It is indeed difficult to imagine any one contend- 
ing in favour of opinions which he does not believe 
to produce a beneficial effect ; and we can no more 
pretend to be absolutely sure respecting the in- 
fluences, than we can respecting the truth, of doc- 
trines. It must be confessed, too, that great 
caution is needed in our attempts to apply such 
an argument, lest we should be led into injustice 
towards our brethren : but, after all, making every 
reasonable deduction, we must decide that it is 
possible to form a judgment, on reasonable and 
substantial grounds, of the practical tendency of 
particular opinions, and that it is important both 
to apply the test to those which we view in an 
unfavourable light, and to defend our own views 
from imputations against them, which are com- 
monly repeated. I intend, then, in the following 
discourse, to examine what are the real influences 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 63 

of Unitarian Christianity, and to bring it into 
contrast in this respect, both with reputed ortho- 
doxy and with mere natural religion. I have no 
doubt but that the defenders of each of these sys- 
tems consider their own as equally pre-eminent for 
the good it produces and the happiness it bestows, 
as for the strength of the arguments by which it 
is supported ; and if their feeling were everything, 
it would be vain to argue on the subject : but I 
have said that I think we may find solid ground 
on which to rest our judgment, and I will, in the 
first place, explain myself somewhat on this point. 
I suppose that there will not be a very wide differ- 
ence amongst us as to what constitute good and 
desirable influences, and if sometimes we are 
found not to agree, there are common principles 
to which we can appeal. In such an inquiry we 
cannot, of course, assume the truth and importance 
of a particular system of faith, we can only argue 
from the fitness of certain principles to produce 
individual and social happiness or misery, a fitness 
which may either be perceived in their own nature, 
or inferred from the conduct of those who have 
professed them. It may be perceived from their 
own nature — for the inquiry is simply whether 
what is required in the name and by the authority 
of religion, is what reason and experience prove to 
contribute to the happiness of life. We know very 
g 2 



64 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



well what sort of dispositions and affections, and 
what sort of a condition — setting aside those cir- 
cumstances over which our own conduct can pro- 
duce no influence, and which, by the ordinance of 
an inscrutable Providence, are appointed for us all 
— constitute, or chiefly contribute to, happiness. 
We may be told, in certain cases, that conduct 
which causes us great unhappiness here, will be 
hereafter so rewarded that we shall have reason 
greatly to rejoice in having adopted it. This may 
be true and important, but it is a question of faith, 
and can influence us only when we already be- 
lieve in the truth of the religion ; it ought not, 
therefore, to be referred to in an inquiry into one 
kind of evidence of the religion being true. If I 
am required to sacrifice all my interests, feelings, 
and enjoyments in this world, for the sake of 
heavenly happiness, then, of course, I cannot re- 
commend my religion as contributing to happiness ; 
which is to argue that it is probably true, because 
it promotes happiness, whereas, in fact, it requires 
the sacrifice of happiness here, because we are 
convinced of its truth, and believe in its promises 
hereafter. Whether with respect to our religion 
altogether, or to any particular view of it, we may 
lay it down as certain, that in so far as it only 
affords us promises of future bliss — these may be 
reasons for considering its evidences, but cannot 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 65 

possibly afford even any presumption of its truth ; 
but when its direct effect is ascertained to be 
to make us happy, this is a reason for believing 
it to be the appointment of a wise and benevo- 
lent Deity — even this cannot be considered as 
in itself alone affording any proof of the authority 
of a system, but it is a very favourable character 
of a religion which claims authority, affording 
a presumptive argument for its truth well worthy 
of attention; and in deciding between different 
representations of the nature of what both parties 
receive as true and authoritative, this kind of argu- 
ment may be employed with greatly increased force. 

It is a much more delicate matter to argue 
from the conduct of the professors of any parti- 
cular opinions. It is undoubtedly a reasonable 
thing in itself. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." " Men do not gather grapes off brambles, 
or figs off thistles." There can be no truth more 
certain than that all opinions exercise an influence, 
good or bad, upon the conduct ; that a man cannot 
really embrace and apply wrong opinions without 
being the worse for it, or those which are true 
and good without enjoying their beneficial in- 
fluences. But then we must recollect how often 
prejudice converts what is good into evil, and dis- 
torts as it were the actions of those whom it 
regards with dislike ; how often conduct is judged 
g3 



66 THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 

of, not by its real merits, but by its conformity to 
the false standard of popular opinion, so that the 
errors we receive are the cause of our condemning 
what ought to enable us to detect them. We 
must also consider how very much the real moral 
character of actions depends on the motives with 
which they are performed, which it is not always 
possible for us to know, and which are so often 
hastily and uncandidly imagined. Again, al- 
though it be certain that opinions exercise a real 
influence on conduct and feelings, it is necessary 
to take into account that all who profess the same 
doctrines are not under precisely the same in- 
fluences; the views they entertain upon other 
subjects, and the effects of education, natural 
temper and social intercourse variously modifying, 
sometimes in the way of improvement, and some- 
times of deterioration, the direct influence of the 
particular doctrines. 

From these considerations it is evident that 
although we may very fairly argue that a certain 
doctrine must naturally produce a certain effect, 
we cannot argue that because a certain indivi- 
dual receives that doctrine, he must conspicuously 
exhibit the effect ; and on the other hand, neither 
the excellencies nor the faults of individuals can 
be employed as proofs of the tendency of opinions 
they are known to hold, because it is not in our 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 67 

power to decide how much is due to the opinions 
in question, and how much to others which he 
equally maintains, or to indirect mental or social 
influences which may be in opposition to the 
effect of some doctrine which he has been led to 
adopt and profess. 

It is only in respect to large bodies, through 
long periods of time, that we can be quite safe 
in our conclusions respecting the effects of opi- 
nions. Here we are freed from disturbing cir- 
cumstances which confuse our judgment, and can 
observe the average effect of particular systems 
of belief upon human beings in every variety of 
age, condition in life, education and temperament; 
and we shall find that this mode of judging, by 
taking a wide field in space and time to collect 
and equalize our results, is the only safe one, 
not only in such an inquiry as that now proposed, 
but in all those sciences which are concerned 
with human conduct. I cannot infer a general 
law respecting commercial intercourse, respecting 
an educational plan, or respecting the efficacy of 
means for preventing any public evil from the 
behaviour of an individual in given circumstances, 
because I do not know all the influences which 
are acting upon them ; yet I know that there are 
general laws on such subjects, founded in human 
nature, and uniform in their operation as ten- 



68 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



dencies to action, and I am sure that by exa- 
mination of a sufficient variety of instances I shall 
be able to separate the universal principle from 
what belongs to the individual mind and position, 
and to establish it as the result of experience. 

The case is very much the same, and for a 
similar reason, in what relates to the physical 
constitution of our frame. General rules of great 
value respecting the tendency as to health and 
long life, of certain habits and modes of living, 
may be derived from sufficiently extensive ob- 
servation ; but though they certainly prove the 
kind of influence of the habit in question, they 
do not enable us to predict results in particular 
cases, because these depend on the constitution of 
the individual, and on the other habits which he 
may unite with the one under consideration. This 
kind of reflection will check the arrogance of per- 
sonal censure, and dispose us to candour and 
caution in our judgments, but it will unfold to us 
the study of human nature as a means of deter- 
mining how we are to live well and happily, and 
what sort of doctrines have most claim to be 
adopted as the guides of our conduct. It will 
teach us how to form a just judgment, and guard 
us against popular delusions and fashionable follies, 
of which there certainly are not fewer in relation 
to religion than to most other subjects. 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 69 

I am too sensible of the difficulties of this kind 
of reasoning, and of the bias of mind to which, with 
the best intentions, one must be exposed, to offer 
it as in itself sufficient to satisfy a serious searcher 
after truth. I defend my opinions by appealing 
to the direct testimony of the only competent 
authorities, and by showing the insufficiency and 
worthlessness of the evidence produced on the 
other side, the inconsistency and unreasonable- 
ness of the system of doctrine which is opposed 
to me ; but we must view the subject in every 
possible light : endeavouring to contrast the fair 
and genuine effects of opposite doctrines seems to 
be a useful exercise of mind ; it at least fixes our 
attention on the best results of the doctrines 
which we have conscientiously embraced ; the 
more we study, understand, and reflect on which, 
the better. It increases our interest in our reli- 
gious sentiments by making us feel their peculiar 
value, and it gives us the opportunity of weighing 
the observations of those who think differently, and 
of repelling accusations which we believe to be 
unjust, arising either from misunderstanding our 
principles, or from an unhappy disposition to mis- 
represent us. 

Nothing, my brethren, but my firm and solemn 
conviction that the doctrines I uphold are not 
merely favourable to virtue and religion, but have 



70 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



decidedly the advantage over all other varieties of 
speculative faith in their tendency to produce 
piety, holiness and charity, to secure our peace 
of mind here, and to prepare us for eternal feli- 
city; and moreover, that various popular forms 
of religious faith exercise a highly unfavourable 
influence on the character — could overcome my 
reluctance to controversial discussions, which, 
could they be fairly viewed as unconnected with 
their practical effects, would, in my estimation, 
compared with the weightier matters of the law, 
be " trifles light as air." I found my zeal for 
truth on the belief that it never can be useless. 
It may indeed often be the case, in respect of 
injurious doctrines, founded on the misunder- 
standing of certain passages of Scripture, and 
strenuously maintained as being Scriptural by 
those who have been brought up in religious 
habits, and who seriously and frequently study 
the word of God, that the mischief of the spe- 
culative doctrines may be to a considerable degree 
counteracted by the effect of the Gospel precepts, 
so as for them to exert only a secondary influence 
on the character, which though unfavourable is 
much limited in extent and importance, but some 
influence must always necessarily be produced. 
The worthiest and the best, in whatever degree 
they are in error, must be made better and hap- 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 71 

pier by being freed from it ; and if we strongly be- 
lieve them to be in error, it is as necessary a duty 
of Christian charity that we should endeavour to 
convince them of it, as that we should in any 
other way labour to diminish the evils and improve 
the condition of our fellow creatures. 

I have now explained and justified the prin- 
ciples, of which I propose in another discourse to 
attempt some applications. But applications will 
continually occur to the minds of those who are 
satisfied of the goodness of the principles, natu- 
rally leading them to value and earnestly contend 
for the truth, without being tempted to illiberal 
and unkind censures of those who seem to them 
only partially to have obtained it. 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY OF UNITA- 
RIAN CHRISTIANITY. 

Part II. — Doctrines and their Effects. 

Ephesians ii. 10. 

" For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good 
works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk 
in them." 

I have undertaken in this discourse, to endeavour 
to contrast the influences of Unitarian Christianity 
with those both of reputed orthodoxy and of 
unassisted natural religion. To this end it seems 
requisite that I should first express my own feel- 
ing of the peculiar value of Unitarian sentiments, 
at the same time attempting to show the falsity of 
some of the imputations against them, and I 
shall then conclude by referring more directly 
to some of the points in which other opinions 
seem to me objectionable or deficient. The subject 
is so extensive that I can only select for present 
notice a few of the particulars which seem to me 
most important; and first, respecting the at- 
tributes, character and dealings with us, of the 
Supreme Being. The Unitarian Christian be- 
lieves goodness to be the great moral perfection of 

H 



74 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



the Divine nature, of which he understands justice 
as well as mercy to be but a modification, and he 
takes the notion of infinite and perfect benevo- 
lence to be that in consistency with which all 
God's dealings are to be explained. 

He consequently believes that all things were 
originally created, and are constantly directed 
by an overruling Providence for good, and that 
the suppositions of God's original plan for the 
happiness of mankind having failed, and of his 
being compelled by the perfection of his nature to 
hate, and to pursue with unrelenting vengeance, 
to eternal perdition, a large proportion of his 
creatures, which appear to be assumed by most 
Christians, are absurd and impossible. Now, if 
to love "the Lord our God with all the heart, 
and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and 
all the strength," be indeed the first and great 
commandment, we surely need hardly ask which 
is most strongly led to the cultivation of this 
affection, the Unitarian or the believer in the re- 
putedly orthodox doctrines respecting the conse- 
quences of Adam's fall, original sin, hereditary 
depravity, and eternal damnation. The Scriptures 
of the New Testament represent God to us as our 
heavenly Father, and encourage us to cherish to- 
wards him, in a purer and more exalted degree, 
the warmth of affection, reverential awe, and filial 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 75 

confidence, which become children towards the 
best and kindest of earthly parents. To those 
who hold Unitarian views of the divine attributes 
and government, such sentiments are natural and 
suitable. But does not the stern character of the 
judge harmonize much better with the prevailing 
ideas of God's perfections and dealings ? Is it not 
an abuse of the term — a bitter libel on those 
earthly parents, who have taught us to love and 
revere the name — to address by the endearing 
appellation of Father, a being who has made eternal 
misery the punishment to his frail creatures, of 
errors to which he himself made them liable, and 
would grant the pardon, even of a small number 
of them, on no other terms than a full price paid 
in the sufferings of the innocent ? 

Some may be apt to think that I am here giving 
an unjustly harsh representation of the popular 
doctrine, and it may be true that its defenders do 
not now give it so repulsive an appearance ; but 
does the real meaning of what they say materially 
differ from this ? and is not the whole of my 
statement fully borne out by authors of repute 
and authority amongst themselves — nay, would it 
not be easy to bring forward, from approved and 
popular authors, language even more revolting to 
every rightly feeling mind? My purpose is to 
exhibit the doctrine in its consistent and naked 
h 2 



76 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



deformity, not as dressed up to avoid giving 
offence to a prying and examining age, in lan- 
guage which, after all, either really expresses the 
same meaning, or has no meaning. The real 
intent of the doctrine called orthodox, seems to be 
to describe God as being prevented by his holiness 
from pardoning sin without some one suffering for 
it, although he himself formed us with a natural 
liability to sin. It represents eternal misery as 
the proper and necessary consequence of sin, only 
to be bought off by the infinite sufferings of an- 
other being, and it supposes God to hold in abhor- 
rence a large proportion of his creatures, and to 
extend mercy, not as a gift (which is the only 
proper meaning of the term), but as a purchase. 
Where, then, is his paternal character ? What do 
the believers in such doctrines mean by calling him 
their " Father in heaven ? " 

The Unitarian Christian believing the Providence 
of God to be universal, and all his dealings, in their 
real and ultimate results, benevolent and kind, re- 
cognizes with delight, in everything around him, 
fresh proofs of Divine beneficence, and finds con- 
stantly new incitements to venerate and love the au- 
thor of all good, his Father and benefactor. Whether 
he contemplates the ever-beauteous face of nature, 
or, sympathizing in the happiness which reigns 
amongst inferior creatures, gives to their silent 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 77 

gratitude the voice of thanksgiving, and the tongue 
of praise — or whether he traces in the pages of 
history the operations of supreme wisdom and 
goodness, in drawing good from apparent evil, 
and working their own purposes by means even of 
the vices and intemperate passions of men, whilst, 
amidst all apparent checks, the grand progress 
intellectual, moral, and social, of the human race, 
steadily advances — or whether, investigating the 
state of the world around him, he delights to ob- 
serve, amidst so much evil and suffering, the pre- 
dominance of happiness in almost every condition, 
and of good in almost every character — finds in 
each different view fresh cause to rejoice in his 
Creator's love, and to trust in his power and wis- 
dom. Filial confidence and filial affection so 
naturally result from his principles, that if he fail 
in them, it must be because his heart has no share 
in his professions — because he has made his reli- 
gion but a matter of empty speculation, and has 
wholly, or in a great degree, neglected to apply it 
to the purpose for which it was intended, and for 
the sake of which it is chiefly valuable. 

If piety really consist in referring all things to 
God, and submitting to all his appointments with 
resignation — if its best signs are humble and 
cheerful gratitude in prosperity, accompanied by 
unfeigned desires and active endeavours to make 
h 3 



78 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



others partake in the happiness we enjoy, and in 
disappointment, affliction and suffering, patience, 
submission, trust in Divine goodness, and serious 
efforts to derive from our sorrows the lessons they 
were sent to teach us, then true piety naturally 
results from Unitarian principles respecting God, 
his character and his providence, and these prin- 
ciples are capable of answering the great practical 
ends of all religion. But I can by no means 
admit that the commonly-received doctrines afford 
equally just grounds for love, confidence and habi- 
tual piety, and what is produced seems to me to be 
due more to the influence of the study of the Scrip- 
tures than to the operation of the creed ; for there 
is in the God of Orthodoxy such a strict and unre- 
lenting severity towards the creatures of his hand, 
whose frail nature was given them by him, that 
he is much more naturally an object of fear than 
of love. " The perfect love which casteth out fear " 
certainly will not be felt towards him. The awful 
sternness of his character checks our confidence, 
and effectually prevents that cheerful trust which 
is founded in the belief that " God is love." The 
character of piety is changed by it, and it appears 
in austerity of countenance and manner, and in a 
multitude of prayers full of self-abasement, instead 
of in a cheerful though moderate and cautious 
enjoyment of the good things of this life, equally 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 79 

considering its blessings and its afflictions as the 
appointments of Divine love, and exerting our- 
selves to use both in the manner he has intended, 
so that this changing scene of mingled joy and 
sorrow may prepare us for the more pure and 
elevated felicity of the state to which it is in- 
troductory. Unitarians are often accused by their 
fellow Christians of great deficiency in practical 
piety, and this supposed deficiency is often con- 
fidently employed as an argument against their 
religious system. We have seen, nevertheless, that 
the system does contain the elements of such piety 
as consists in love, submission and veneration ; 
such piety as warms, purifies, elevates and con- 
soles ; of such as tends to cheerful obedience and 
rational faith. If, however, a definition be given 
of piety, adapted to an opposite creed, and giving 
prominent importance to elements which we ex- 
pressly disclaim, or consider as of secondaiy value, 
and required in limited proportion, it is then easy 
to convict us of deficiency and to load us with cen- 
sure. If I mention one or two sources of re- 
proach, you will readily judge of their argu- 
mentative importance. 

Many charges against us arise from our not 
believing pleasure to be in itself sinful, but sup- 
posing that when innocent, and not interfering 
with the performance of any specific duty, it may 



80 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



be sought in moderation as a refreshment amidst 
the labours of life; whilst, on the contrary, per- 
sons of other persuasions, who make much pre- 
tension to religion, usually condemn all parti- 
cipation in the pleasures of the world as in itself 
sinful, and are in the habit of regarding their 
most moderate use as a sign of irreligion. We of 
course defend our practice as consistent with true 
piety, and refuse to be judged by a standard which 
others may choose to set up. I need not discuss 
the question ; the candid and judicious will readily 
see which creed is most reasonable, useful, and 
productive of happiness. We are also exposed to 
much reproach, because we are most of us not 
strict Sabbatarians ; that is, though we may think 
a seventh-day rest from the labours of life most 
desirable and important, probably of early divine 
institution, and may be disposed to employ a rea- 
sonable portion of the first day of the week in 
public worship and religious improvement, we 
do not think the Jewish Sabbath-law obligatory on 
Christians, and do not admit that the austere ob- 
servance of the Sabbath is either a duty, useful, or 
even free from great evil and danger. Calvin was 
a strong Anti- Sabbatarian, and the practice of the 
Scotch presbyterians and English puritans is re- 
jected by most Protestants as well as by the 
Catholic church. It is therefore most unjust to 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 81 

make our adopting the practice which we in com- 
mon with so many others think right and favour- 
able to the best influences of religion, the founda- 
tion of a charge of irreligion. 

There is no doubt that Unitarians attach less 
importance than most other sects to the frequent 
repetition of the ceremonies and outward services 
of religion, which they regard as means of keep- 
ing alive good feelings, and strengthening the in- 
fluence of right principles and motives, but which 
they can conceive of being carried to an excess, 
which shall defeat their purpose, and will not pre- 
tend to place on a level with the actual duties 
of piety, holiness, and charity. Here again the 
condemnation to which they are exposed arises 
from trying them by a false standard, and calling 
it impiety to form a different judgment from our 
accusers respecting the best means of improvement. 

I might mention some other things which I 
have occasionally heard made the subject of charges 
against us, but these will be sufficient to show 
how and why we are assailed, and to give every 
one the means of estimating the justice of the 
attacks upon us. If our prevailing conduct be 
only tried by the general principles of the love 
and obedience of God — justice and charity to- 
wards our fellow men — patience, temperance and 
self-government in our personal character — we can 



82 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



have no just ground for complaint, and must ac* 
cept the reputation which we shall appear to de- 
serve ; but let not an unfair importance be attached 
to an arbitrary judgment against us, the result 
of comparison with a standard which we disclaim. 
If the necessary limits of my time, and the im- 
portance of some topics yet lying before me, did 
not warn me from entering on so copious a sub- 
ject, I might enlarge much on the immediate 
practical value of the Unitarian doctrine respecting 
our Saviour's person, a value which consists, not 
only in the simplicity it gives to our worship, but 
in the additional power it gives to his example, 
and in the peculiar importance it attributes to 
his resurrection, as the proof as well as the pledge 
and assurance of our own. But I hasten to 
another point which I could not pass over, the 
direct relation of the Unitarian doctrine to the 
principles of moral obligation, and the means of 
producing the truest and highest excellence of 
moral character. The common views of Chris- 
tianity making a mistaken and dangerous use of 
Scriptural language, which a moderate share of 
attention and critical judgment would show to 
have a very different meaning, encourage too 
much the notion of the possibility of sudden 
repentance, especially at the close of life, and 
represent the possession, at whatever time ac- 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 83 

quired, of a peculiar faith in the efficacy of what 
our Lord has accomplished, as a principal element 
in the saving power of our religion. Unita- 
rianism alone represents the benefits conferred by 
the Gospel, as really consisting in the influence on 
our minds, of its holy precepts and pure prin- 
ciples — represents that virtue constitutes the 
happiness of human nature, and that pure religion 
shows in what it consists and how it is to be 
cultivated and guarded. It teaches us that we 
can never do wrong without lessening our hap- 
piness by it ; that indulgence in evil and delay of 
repentance are fatal mistakes, indicating the want 
of all real conviction respecting the claims of 
duty. It shows us the folly of partial obedience; 
the absolute necessity of constant efforts after 
improvement. I must feel convinced that the 
doctrines of hereditary depravity, and of the ope- 
ration of the devil serving to account for all evil 
tendencies in our minds, and those of the efficacy 
of sudden repentance, and a peculiar faith giving 
us the hope of escaping in time from the evil, even 
if it be allowed a temporary triumph, are principal 
causes of Christianity producing less effect on 
professed believers than we might justly expect ; 
and on the other hand, that the moral principles 
which Unitarianism peculiarly enforces are of the 
utmost importance, and have the most immediate 



84 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



and powerful influence in strengthening us against 
temptation, and animating us to progressive virtue, 
such as becomes our high and holy calling. 

I shall now very shortly sum up my grounds of 
objection against the practical influences both of 
the doctrines called orthodox, and of that unbelief 
or scepticism which reduce us to mere natural 
religion. Of course you will understand from 
what I have said, that I do not pretend to main- 
tain that these evils are equally and necessarily 
manifested in all individuals who hold such opi- 
nions ; allowance must be made for differences of 
natural disposition and temperament, education 
and acquired habits, and social influences ; but I 
attribute this as being the real tendency of the 
doctrines held, and I maintain that in fact when 
we review the state of society around us, we can 
plainly see that it is their result. 

I need not here enlarge on the effect of belief 
in a Trinity, in confusing our minds respecting 
the proper object of Divine worship, and by 
ascribing different dispositions towards us, and 
relations to us, to the different persons, producing 
one of the serious evils of idolatrous worship; 
clothing religion in mystery, which makes it con- 
founding to reason, and is therefore opposed to its 
acquiring that intellectual character which is the 
source of so much of its useful power, and causing 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 85 

an unexamining submission to a creed to be ac- 
counted meritorious as a security against heresy, 
by which means the boldest, most acute, and 
energetic minds are driven towards unbelief, and 
others are sunk into lethargy on those subjects 
which ought to be esteemed most interesting. I 
cannot doubt the tendency of the doctrine of 
atonement and salvation from Divine wrath by 
faith in the merits of Christ, to make the love of 
the Saviour an antagonist principle to the love of 
God, to draw off our attention from the improve- 
ment of our own character as the means of securing 
God's merciful favour, and to elevate in popular 
estimation implicit faith, which is really a vice, 
above the most important virtues. There is even 
great danger, that when hereditary and inherent 
depravity of nature accounts for our vicious pro- 
pensities, and salvation is thought to come to us 
independently of them, the necessity of exertion 
for their cure may be undervalued, and the very 
doctrines of religion made the pretence and excuse 
for indulgence in what is evil and corrupt. Ac- 
cording to different modes of viewing the popular 
doctrines, and the prominence given to different 
parts of them, they naturally produce either a too 
great reliance on external ceremonies, and on the 
formal part of religion, accompanied by self-indul- 
gence, and a worldly spirit, or an austere and 
i 



86 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



gloomy asceticism, which would rob human society 
of all its charms and graces, condemn and pro- 
scribe rational pursuits and innocent pleasures, 
and make religion, instead of being, as it should 
be, the regulator of our feelings and actions in 
the business and intercourse of life, become itself 
Our chief object and employment. I will only 
add now, that the belief in the eternal torments of 
all who are not saved by Divine grace, through a 
peculiar faith, obliges us to regard misery as con- 
tributing to the glory of God, and to triumph in 
it as a righteous and holy dispensation ; and leads 
us to look upon our fellow-creatures as condemned 
and doomed criminals, satisfying ourselves as best 
we can with the prospect of our own selfish happi- 
ness. I have already alluded to the extreme 
dangers of the popular doctrine concerning re- 
pentance. 

Natural religion may vary from the rudest and 
simplest notions of the existence of a superior 
power, or the most degrading and corrupting 
idolatry to the purest form of theism, in which 
the perfections and government of God are fully 
recognized, and even the future existence of man, 
in a retributory state, is believed and applied. It 
is a great question how far the last-mentioned 
form could ever possibly have existed, had it not 
borrowed from a system professing to be revealed ; 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 87 

but it is clear that, in its most perfect state, the 
best that can be said for it is, that it contains all 
that is excellent in the best form of revealed re- 
ligion, without the difficulties and objections to 
which the idea of revelation and of miracle, its 
necessary proof, is thought to be exposed. We, 
perhaps, deny that these difficulties and objections 
are at all so great as they are represented. We, 
perhaps, think that the scheme of Divine revela- 
tion, as exhibited by its rational defenders, is, 
upon the whole, of all others the most probable in 
itself, and accompanied by the fewest sources of 
doubt and dissatisfaction ; but let us, at present, 
rather consider how far the very best form of 
natural religion does, in its influences and ten- 
dencies, equal that form of Christianity which we 
maintain to be derived from a fair view of the re- 
cords of our religion, and to be at once rational 
and delightful in theory, and useful in practice. 
In the first place, natural religion leaves us without 
any knowledge of any declared relation between 
us and our Maker. He has not made himself 
known as our ruler, our judge, our father — he has 
not commanded our obedience, or promised to re- 
ward it. He has not declared his perfections, or 
pointed out to us his will as the means of our 
happiness. He has not invited us to his worship, 
or given us any reason to hope that our services 
i 2 



88 



THE PRACTICAL TENDENCY 



are approved. Our religious offerings are made 
with uncertainty as to their suitableness, and we 
are tempted to withhold them, as what God cannot 
be the better for, and has not asked for ; there is 
altogether a want of any definite claim upon our 
services, or feeling of obligation connected with 
them ; and I mean this, not only with respect to 
worship and prayer, but in all our moral duties, 
which seems to me exceedingly unsuited to human 
nature, and calculated very much to lower the ac- 
tual influence of religion on the mind and conduct. 

Secondly. It appears to me, that mere natural re- 
ligion leaves us in uncertainty on several of the most 
important points, as to what we ought to believe 
or do. Experience plainly proves that, as a general 
rule, it cannot bestow that firm faith in a life to 
come, which is the proper fruit of revealed religion 
— and, as a natural consequence, it cannot justify 
the self-denying charity, and strict government, 
of the passions, which belong to the best influences 
of a divine system. It cannot be supposed to 
exert such power in temptation, or to afford such 
consolations in seasons of sorrow and suffering, 
as the religion which sets before us the solemn 
commands and gracious promises of our Maker. 

Altogether there is, in natural religion, a want 
of sufficient authority, to be useful to frail mortals 
in this world of trial. When free from great 



OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIANITY. 89 

errors, and in that form which we believe that it 
never could have attained without the use of reve- 
lation, and which we can evidently trace to the 
effect of Christianity, it contains much that is 
good and beautiful, and may exert much valuable 
influence, but it does not bring us into that happy 
relationship to the God of Nature and Providence 
as our God and father, who has taught us how our 
nature and condition may be made to yield the 
greatest sum of true felicity, has assured us that 
this is a state of education and preparation, and 
that even by means of our trials here, we shall be 
made more happy hereafter — and has appointed 
means suitable to our nature and wants, for cherish- 
ing and promoting the best influences, resisting 
temptation, and living in faith, piety, and filial 
obedience. 

I have thus endeavoured to bring into fair 
comparison the moral and religious influences of 
Unitarian Christianity, and of the systems opposed 
to it. The just inference appears to me to be a 
powerful argument in favour of the views which I 
believe to be supported by every other legitimate 
mode of reasoning, calculated to strengthen our 
convictions, to show us the necessity of studying 
their application, to impress upon us the import- 
ance of the faith we embrace, and to rouse our bene- 
volent interest in diffusing it amongst our brethren, 
i 3 



CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL AND 
SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



Romans xii. 1. 

u I beseeeh you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is your reasonable service." 

I propose especially to direct your attention at 
present to the last clause of this sentence. 

It is, I should think, very commonly understood 
to mean, " which is a service reasonably and pro- 
perly required of you, such as you may be ex- 
pected readily and cheerfully to pay :" but, though 
this may appear to be the natural meaning of the 
English words, and the remark so taken is very 
true in itself, it is a sense which the original will 
by no means bear. We find some commentators 
and paraphrasts explaining the clause, " a service 
which is conformable with reason," which is fitted 
for a reasonable being ; others again, " a rational 
offering," the offering up of that which possesses 
reason, as opposed to the offerings of brute and irra- 
tional creatures required by the Jewish Law. These 
may perhaps be possible explanations of the original 
word here translated reasonable, but I believe the 
interpretation which best expresses its true force, 



92 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

and gives the clearest and most consistent sense 
to the passage, is, * f a mental and spiritual service," 
as opposed to the external forms and ceremonies 
in which so considerable a part of the Jewish in- 
stitutions consisted, but which were to be entirely 
superseded by Christianity. The apostle exhorts 
the Roman Christians, that considering the mer- 
cies of God of which they were made partakers ; 
reflecting on that admission to the privileges of 
the Gospel which was bestowed upon them by his 
free grace, and which for the future relieved them 
from burdensome ceremonies and multiplied ritual 
observances, — they would, instead of offering from 
time to time, as was now no longer required, the 
bodies of slaughtered animals, present unto God 
their own bodies, a living and therefore a constant 
sacrifice ; an offering not depending for its accept- 
ableness on being of a particular age and exter- 
nally without blemish, nor upon any form of con- 
secration employed, but sanctified by a holy life 
and conversation, and therefore in itself acceptable; 
a service spiritual and belonging to the mind — not 
outward and carnal — such as their profession re- 
quired, and as ought to distinguish them from 
their less favoured fellow-creatures. 

Let us endeavour to improve the present occa- 
sion, by dwelling a little on that characteristic 
distinction of Christianity, which I suppose to be 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



93 



here expressed by the apostle, that it is a spiritual 
or mental service : let us consider what must be 
■ implied in such a declaration, and what its appli- 
cation is to our times and circumstances. 

The immediate object with which Christianity is 
here represented as a spiritual service, is to con- 
trast it with the ceremonial worship, not only of 
Paganism, but of Judaism. That it might be 
better adapted to its temporary purpose, and in 
condescension to the wants and capacities of an 
ignorant period, and an early stage in the pro- 
gress of the human race, Judaism required the 
stated performance of certain acts of worship ac- 
cording to prescribed forms, as the condition of 
acceptance with God. The benefit of its just and 
ennobling principles, of its pure and excellent 
moral precepts, was not to be enjoyed except in 
connection with the ceremonial law, and it held 
out no hopes that any attention to them could 
avail to obtain the Divine favour, unless it were 
sought at the appointed place by fixed rites and 
offerings. All other religions consisted almost 
entirely of external acts of worship, which were 
most commonly degrading and absurd, too fre- 
quently impure and corrupting. 

Christianity, on the contrary, has no prescribed 
place or forms of worship. Nothing external or 
ritual can essentially belong to it. It consists in 



94 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

the influence of certain great principles on the 
mind and conduct. These principles are to be 
deduced from historical records and various docu- 
ments, proved by good evidence to have the 
requisite authority, by the exercise of the natural 
powers of the human mind, being of course 
obtained in greater purity, and applied with 
greater success in proportion as well-cultivated 
powers are employed in the investigation, and 
as knowledge and intelligence are diffused through- 
out society. But they are obtained and applied 
altogether by means of reason and thought, and 
their benefit consists entirely in the state of the 
dispositions and affections, and consequently of 
the conduct which they produce. The apostle 
Paul speaks, in the Epistle to the Galatians, of 
Judaism as a dispensation to children, whilst the 
Gospel is adapted to the matured faculties. A 
system of external and minutely prescribed duties 
may be necessary for the production of the best 
attainable effects, in minds which are weak and 
unformed from the yet imperfect development 
either of the individual or of the species, but it is 
not in its nature fitted for reasonable and intel- 
ligent beings, and will always be laid aside by 
a wise and good governor, as soon as the ripening 
understanding will allow of its being dispensed 
with. Principles adopted by the reason, and 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



95 



cherished in the heart, with the fondness which 
conviction produces, are a living spring of holy 
affections and virtuous actions ; mere rules, on the 
contrary, are obeyed with reluctance because they 
are to be obeyed, and are constantly liable to be 
misunderstood or evaded in particular instances. 
Principles, in being adopted and acted upon, con- 
stitute the happiness of those who receive them ; 
forms are only intended to produce right states of 
mind ; and all rules, moral as well as ceremonial, so 
long as they are mere rules, are only valuable for 
the degree in which they cause us to act towards 
others as if we had right principles, or tend to 
excite or cherish those principles in our minds. 
A truly spiritual religion shows its excellence in 
the working of principles perceived by the under- 
standing to be right ; in the offering of services 
felt to be reasonable and useful, and in a course of 
conduct flowing from the convictions of a reflecting 
and inquiring mind. 

It is opposed to a faith adopted as a matter of 
duty, and which it would be accounted a crime to 
question or examine ; to the scrupulous employ- 
ment of external forms, which, though we dare not 
neglect them, and though they may exercise a 
certain habitual power over our feelings, are more 
likely to make us fancy ourselves good, than to 
promote our improvement in what is really excel- 



96 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

lent; and to a moral system of detailed prohi- 
bitions and requirements, which makes us move 
through life as in fetters, or as if passing through 
a quagmire, in constant apprehension of sinking, 
which deprives our good actions of their grace and 
nature, and gives to evil all the attraction of an 
escape from restraint. 

To correct the belief of men was undoubtedly- 
one great purpose of the Christian dispensation — 
to inspire faith in the perfections and government 
of an unseen but all-powerful and ever-active 
ruler; to teach men to regard their God with 
the confidence and love as well as the reverence 
due to a father ; to produce a certain and lively 
anticipation of the future state which he has 
ordained for his rational creatures ; and to connect 
with it the clear conviction that a virtuous course 
can alone secure real and permanent happiness ; 
— these are objects worthy of the mission of the 
Saviour of mankind, and they are most appro- 
priately effected, by setting before us satisfactory 
grounds for believing that Jesus was indeed the 
authorized messenger of the Great Supreme, whose 
holy truth was on his lips, whilst its influence 
shone forth in all his conduct ; that he was a ray 
of the glory, and a reflected image of the per- 
fections of that infinite God whom no mortal hath 
seen or can see — commissioned to reveal his cha- 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 97 

racter and designs, and to lead us into that way of 
true happiness which is the fulfilment of his will. 
But in what page of the sacred volume which 
records for our instruction the life, the miracles 
and the teachings of our Lord, do we find a creed 
set down, which we are commanded as an act of 
duty to profess, which there is merit in receiving, 
or criminality in calling in question ? Where is the 
form of words which we are bound submissively to 
repeat, or where is the power communicated, by 
which either church or civil governor is authorized 
to interfere with the freedom of our thoughts or 
language? A rational belief is the effect of evidence 
considered by the mind, and naturally manifests 
itself by influencing the feelings and conduct. A 
belief received in obedience to authority, or as an 
act of duty, is an outward symbol employed, with 
which the intellect is little concerned, and of 
which the effects belong not so much to the 
opinion as to the prostration of mind which secures 
its reception. The evil of creeds consists in their 
being enforced, whether hy motives of worldly 
hope and fear, or by connecting with their adop- 
tion the idea of duty, and employing for their 
support threats and promises relating to another 
state. Any man may express his opinions for the 
instruction of his fellow-creatures, but no one has 
a right to assume their certain truth, or to impose 

K 



98 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

them upon others by any means beyond stating 
the grounds of his own convictions. Any belief 
which results from thought and examination, even 
if mistaken methods of inquiry, and the want of 
needful knowledge, should cause it to be erroneous, 
belongs to a spiritual faith; but the slave of a creed 
is always confined to beggarly elements, to mere 
forms and outward acts, dry husks which afford no 
wholesome nourishment to the spiritual nature. 

In like manner true religion unquestionably 
excites us to the worship of God. The prayer 
which brings our minds into conscious communion 
with the Divine mind, and calls into liveliest exer- 
cise our purest affections and holiest desires, is a 
privilege and a blessing, at once a means of im- 
provement and a source of peace and consolation, 
to neglect which would show ignorance of our 
nature and wants, if not the absence of becoming 
feelings towards our Creator and Governor. The 
opportunities of advancing in religious knowledge, 
and of having the convictions of the understanding 
stimulated into active principles for the guidance 
of the conduct, will be undervalued by no wise 
man, and a faithful application of the public 
services and private offices of religion, as means 
of grace, may justly be regarded as one charac- 
teristic of true piety and virtue, but it has ever 
been a prevailing, as it is a most pernicious mis- 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



99 



take, to confound the means with the end. There 
were very many amongst the Jews who imagined 
that the sacrifices and ceremonies of their law, 
which were in fact but an indulgence to their 
weakness, constituted the essence of their reli- 
gion, and that those who scrupulously fulfilled 
them might be excused in departing from an 
inconveniently strict observance of justice, mercy 
and faithfulness. So among Christians, — in dark 
and ignorant ages, prayers and masses, pompous 
ceremonies and publicly-exhibited mortifications, 
were esteemed all-powerful in securing the Divine 
favour, and in later times the error has rather 
been reproduced under new forms, than really 
given way before the light of knowledge. When 
we see men evidently accounting it meritorious 
to multiply to the utmost the services of religion, 
perpetually occupied in the outward display of 
their zeal and piety, and condemning all the plea- 
sures of life as if they thought the feeling of 
enjoyment in itself sinful, we can have no doubt in 
classing such persons as formalists, unless we should 
have reason for regarding them as hypocrites. With 
them it is plain, that outward signs of interest in 
religion pass for its substance ; that to be religious 
is to listen to prayers and sermons, to keep apart 
from pleasures, to maintain a serious demeanour, 
or whatever else may please the zealots of a party, 



100 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

whilst the benefit and the blessing of quiet, unob- 
trusive piety, cultivated by all proper means, and 
carried into all the affairs of life, but not mani- 
festing itself in a sanctified deportment, or seem- 
ing to say to others, " stand off, for I am holier 
than thou," — they cannot be brought to under- 
stand. Religion itself is so unspeakably valuable, 
that serious attempts to cultivate its spirit, where 
the means do not interfere with the end, must 
always be respected, even should we not think the 
means employed most judicious and effective ; but 
in proportion as we respect religion, we are dis- 
gusted with cant, and its prevalence causes even 
more alarm for the cause we love, than the open 
attacks of unbelievers, which indeed will never 
long be absent, when such a mark is set up for 
their scoffs and reproaches. An intellectual service 
is essentially a service of which rites and forms 
constitute no necessary or prescribed part; in 
which there is nothing merely ceremonial — in 
which the offering presented is that of a pure and 
devout mind, and outward observances are only 
employed so far as they are required by the social 
spirit of our nature, for the best use of the means of 
improvement. Men give undue importance to the 
external part of religion, from not understanding 
and appreciating the spiritual part, and, in doing 
so, they are enslaved and degraded. 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 101 

It is a very remarkable fact, that the spiritual 
character of Christianity extends even to its mode 
of influencing the actions in the ordinary conduct 
of life. It contains no code of moral laws. It 
does not undertake to give us rules, which we have 
only to remember and obey. The instructions of 
our Lord and his apostles are not dry, general 
maxims — though, perhaps, they are often igno- 
rantly taken as such — they are advices adapted to 
the particular cases and circumstances of persons 
addressed, or remarks arising out of passing events, 
and they become truly useful to us when, having 
understood their first intention, and felt their 
justice and propriety, we catch the spirit which 
dictated them, and are prepared to regulate, by 
its influence, our own conduct. It is not possible 
for any system of rules to be directly applicable in 
different ages and countries, nor is it possible for 
any rules so to meet the endless variety of human 
circumstances, as for obedience to be sufficient 
without the exercise of the judgment, and a ne- 
cessity for the guiding influence of certain grand 
and important principles. It is when the prin- 
ciples are exhibited as applied in particular cases, 
which at the same time illustrate their beauty and 
excellence, that the intellectual powers are exer- 
cised, whilst the moral taste is formed ; that whilst 
we study the narrative, we imbibe the spirit of the 
k 3 



102 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

teacher, and our own conduct is from day to day 
more and more animated by that pure and ele- 
vated piety, that strict integrity, that steady control 
over the meaner appetites and passions, and that 
warm and disinterested benevolence, which are so 
powerfully recommended by our master's discourses, 
and yet more effectually taught by his actions. 

We are not, as Christians, asked for a blind un- 
meaning submission to a certain code of laws, 
but for the use of our powers of reasoning and re- 
flection, in understanding our relation to God as 
our Father and Governor, and the prospects which 
his mercy opens to us, in order that the knowledge 
of these most important circumstances in our con- 
dition may have a due influence over us, and may 
lead us to all that is good, as belonging to our 
situation, and essential to our true happiness — and 
that the gilded baits of unlawful pleasure, and the 
false allurements of vice, being understood by us 
in their real character, may be rejected as destruc- 
tive of our peace. Morality — even Christian mo- 
rality — is often taught as if it consisted entirely in 
bending our minds to obedience to a system of 
laws, because God, as our sovereign, has a right to 
require it ; but this narrow view will not satisfy 
the enlightened Christian. 

It is true, we must obey, and we cannot always 
understand the way in which this obedience is to 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



103 



promote our happiness — but it is an obedience 
which results from the use of the understanding, 
and the exercise of the affections ; an obedience 
not to mere formal rules, but to the conviction 
that our God is love — that what he requires, as 
well as what he appoints, is ordained in wisdom 
and kindness, and that we cannot devote ourselves 
to his service without thereby ensuring our felicity. 
It is an obedience which results from our own 
lively participation in those holy and benignant 
sentiments which belong to our religion, and which 
we feel that our hearts approve and cherish, even 
when they cause us present suffering or self- 
denial. Such, my brethren, be our Christian 
obedience and moral self-restraint — a spirit of love 
and of hope, a spirit of knowledge and of power, 
not of slavish submission, degrading fear, or 
blind, formal conformity to the letter of the 
precept. 

Having endeavoured to explain the sense in 
which Christianity requires a spiritual offering, 
and to contrast its real nature with some prevailing 
abuses to which it is exposed, I proceed to offer a 
few reflections which occur to me as being of 
practical importance. And first I will observe 
that the view of Christian doctrine, which we most 
of us regard as alone defensible by a just inter- 
pretation of Scripture, and as alone harmonizing 



104 



CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 



natural with revealed religion into one beantiful 
and perfect whole, adapts itself peculiarly well to 
the doctrine delivered by the apostle in the text. 
Ours is naturally a spiritual system. We reject 
all human creeds with abhorrence, as impositions 
on conscience and unjustifiable interferences with 
that intellectual freedom which God has given as 
our common birthright. Our public services are 
much more considered as means of improvement, 
much less resorted to as acts of duty, than those 
of most other sects, and we are apt to imagine 
them more fitted to exercise the reasoning powers, 
to communicate real knowledge, and to act on the 
affections by means of the understanding. We 
probably exhibit also less disposition to govern 
and control each other than most of our Christian 
brethren. 

The object of our social religion is to provide 
means of improvement and excitements to piety 
and holiness, not to watch each other or call each 
other to account for what we may disapprove. 
Whatever government may have existed and been 
necessary in early times, we know not that Christ 
has authorized any to become rulers over their 
brethren in his name, and we have seen too much 
of the abuses of such power to permit its existence 
amongst us. We may then perhaps claim to be, as 
compared with others, a free, intelligent, and in- 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



105 



quiring class of Christians, peculiarly disposed to 
acknowledge and act upon the spiritual character 
of our religion. All this is our glory and privi- 
lege, but it becomes us to be very careful lest, as 
too commonly happens, in our eagerness to avoid 
one evil, we should run into an opposite one. 

Let us take care, that in rejecting creeds and 
refusing to be bound to formularies of doctrine, 
we do not become indifferent to truth, the greatest 
of all blessings, the source of happiness and good- 
ness ! Let us take care that, in our anxiety to 
free our worship from superstition and formality, 
we do not render it cold, and that we do not per- 
mit ourselves to neglect it, because we justly ac- 
count it as only a means of grace. If we see no 
advantage in multiplying services, as some do, 
let those which we do adopt, and which long expe- 
rience has sanctioned, be attended with the zeal 
which the importance of their object claims; and 
let it not be our reproach that a pure and rational 
worship, not tainted with superstition, or deformed 
by rant, is insufficient to excite our interest. 

Let our individual independence only impress us 
with a deeper sense of our personal responsibility, 
and professing to live under the law of the spirit, 
not of the flesh ; let the great principles of our 
holy faith be cherished in our hearts by meditation 
and prayer, so that they may shine forth in our 



106 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

daily actions, and exert their influence over our 
whole character and conduct. 

Secondly. It might perhaps be thought of as 
an objection to the view I have given of the 
nature of Christianity as a spiritual and intel- 
lectual religion, that it is not thus equally well 
adapted to the poor and ignorant, whom never- 
theless, as much at least as any other class, it 
must be believed that our Saviour came to serve 
and bless. What I deny is, that a religion, by 
appealing to the reason and employing the best 
faculties of the mind, is the less fitted for the 
great body of God's reasonable and intelligent 
creatures. In affirming Christianity to be a spiri- 
tual faith, we mean that it appeals to and exercises 
the reason; that it produces its influences by 
means of the noblest powers of our nature ; and 
what must follow from this but that it is adapted 
to our nature, and it there confers the greatest 
benefit where in other ways the noblest powers 
are least exercised. Who should most need and 
most enjoy an intellectual faith, but those whom 
their circumstances do not allow to employ their 
intellect on the stores of ancient learning or 
modern science, but who yet possess faculties 
capable of enjoying mental activity, and of sepa- 
rating the pure gold of truth from the ore in 
which it is often concealed or deformed ? Who 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 



107 



can compare, as a benefit to the poor and the 
unlearned, a religion which leaves them contented 
with ignorance and mental torpor, or at best only 
excites the imagination with vague hopes and 
terrors, with one which regularly employs the 
reason, connects itself with knowledge, excites 
reflection, and subdues the animal nature by 
giving force and vigour to the spiritual part ? 

One sense in which the Gospel is peculiarly 
fitted for the poor, is that the thought and inquiry 
it calls for is of especial use to them, and is a 
source to them of especial pleasure : at least if 
there is any one class more than another which 
can justly be said to be especially benefited by the 
intellectual influences of true religion, I should 
take that class to be the poor, though when I 
think how much these influences are also needed 
by others, I can scarcely allow that any difference 
exists. Assuredly, however, he whose labours 
afford him least time to seek knowledge or culti- 
vate his mind, and who has been least in the way 
of enjoying the advantages of education, is still a 
thinking and reasoning being. He is capable of 
knowing his Maker by his works and word, of 
learning something of his government and designs, 
of judging what conduct is most wise and happy 
for the present, and of enjoying glorious hopes 
for the future. Christianity received and che- 



108 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL 

rished in its true spirit will open all these bless- 
ings to him — and they are better far than all else 
which the world has to offer him. They are 
blessings in themselves, and the very attainment 
of them is itself delightful, but they belong to the 
religion of the mind and the affections, and are 
forbidden to blind faith, to weak superstition, and 
to wild enthusiasm. 

Lastly. Believers in the spiritual character of 
religion must of course be zealous promoters of all 
means for the cultivation of the mind and the 
advancement of knowledge. Those who are in 
perpetual alarm lest education should produce 
scepticism, and lest science should interfere with 
some article of religious faith, are those whose 
religion is a slavery to creeds and rules, who fear 
lest God should be offended with them for adopt- 
ing the conclusions to which their reason conducts 
them, and who can shut their eyes to the plainest 
facts, or refuse assent to the clearest deductions 
from them, rather than alter one jot or one tittle 
of what they have learned as an act of duty to 
receive with uninquiring reverence. They on the 
contrary who regard religion as an intellectual 
service, value it for the truths it communicates 
and the use it enables them to make of the truths 
they may otherwise discover, but they can form no 
conception of a benefit arising from ignorance, or 



AND SPIRITUAL FAITH. 109 

of an obligation to refuse to accept evidence, or to 
resist conviction on any subject whatever. They 
are friends of fearless inquiry; lovers of simple, 
unadulterated truth on every subject of human 
thought; confident that with truth, practical good 
is indissolubly connected ; and not daring to de- 
cide that on any subject, truth is so fully and 
certainly known that further examination and 
reflection can be useless or dangerous. Their 
hopes and endeavours are for the progress as well 
as the diffusion of knowledge, and their warm 
sympathies are with all labours for these noble 
ends, from the humblest means adopted to form 
the rising generation to habits of reflection and 
intelligence, to store their minds with knowledge, 
and imbue them with liberal sentiments and 
enlightened piety, to the highest efforts of genius 
in the service of mankind, and the highest 
institutions for encouraging the inquiring spirit, 
and exciting to the love and communication of 
truth. In all they view knowledge as the hand- 
maid of religion — active thought as the instrument 
of an improvement which cannot be confined to 
mere external things, — truth as the unfailing spring 
of virtue and of happiness. In all they fearlessly 
and confidingly rejoice, certain that even if there 
should be any partial and temporary evil, good must 
be the real and ultimate result, and lending their 

L 



110 CHRISTIANITY AN INTELLECTUAL, ETC. 

humble aid in the persuasion that if a pure and 
simple, a refined and spiritual religion, is to pre- 
vail, and its inestimable blessings are to be dif- 
fused, it must be in connection with the progress 
of knowledge, and with the better cultivation of 
those noble faculties of our intellectual nature, to 
devote which to the honour and service of God is 
the best and most acceptable offering which our 
nature will permit us to make. 



THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



1 John iv. 1. 

" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they 
are of God." 

These words of the apostle are of great importance 
for showing the true character of Christianity. 
They afford an unequivocal sanction of the use of 
inquiry and individual judgment in matters of 
religion ; they represent these as of peculiar neces- 
sity at a time when many false prophets were 
abroad, and thus hold them forth as affording the 
proper defence of religion against corruption and 
opposition ; lastly, (which renders them suitable to 
my present purpose,) they contain an express 
charge to Christians not to believe all pretensions 
to spiritual gifts, but subjecting them to a fair 
trial, to require reasonable conviction of their 
genuineness, before any regard is paid to them in 
the regulation of our religious faith or practice. 
Among the first Christians, to whom the apos- 
tolic advice was immediately addressed, extra- 
ordinary and miraculous powers of various kinds 
were generally diffused, and these appear to have 
l2 



112 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



been pretended to by false teachers, who perverted 
to their own purposes the doctrines of the Gospel. 
Nor is there less occasion in modern times for 
trying the spirits, since notwithstanding that the 
spiritual gifts of the first disciples have confessedly 
ceased, certain gifts of the spirit are still pretended 
to by a large proportion of Christians, to form 
some judgment of the reality and genuineness of 
which is a matter of great interest to us all ; in- 
deed, it may be necessary for many persons to try 
not only the pretensions of others, but also their 
own, to the special influences of the Holy Spirit, 
that by the application of some fair and rational 
criteria they may determine whether the feelings 
and sentiments which they account for in this 
manner, do really afford sufficiently certain and 
convincing indications of the high origin they are 
disposed to ascribe to them. The early Christians 
had to try the claims of individuals, some of whom 
really, as all believers in Christianity believe, pos- 
sessed the gifts which others feigned. They had 
to distinguish between truth and artifice, between 
the spirit of Christ and the spirit of Antichrist. 
Our case is different ; for since it is acknowledged, 
except by those whom we regard as the wildest 
enthusiasts, that external miraculous signs have 
altogether ceased, and since without them all per- 
sons representing themselves as enjoying spiritual 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



113 



guidance, instruction or support, stand on the same 
ground, it is a general question which we have 
to examine. If we decide affirmatively, we seem 
bound to acknowledge the claims of all those who 
seriously and without imposture are persuaded 
that they enjoy Divine influences ; at least we can 
show no sufficient reason for believing in some and 
rejecting others — we make an arbitrary choice, 
which we can scarcely attempt to justify by evi- 
dence : if negatively, we reject them all, as sup- 
posing those who made them to be deceived by 
their own imagination, and in their several de- 
grees to be doing injury to pure religion. 

In conducting our inquiry it will be proper for 
us to consider whether Christians of the present 
day have any reason from the Scriptures for 
expecting supernatural or immediate assistance ; 
whether we can have any sufficient reason for 
believing that others, or even that we ourselves 
enjoy it, unless proved by some unequivocal ex- 
ternal sign ; whether the supposition of the reality 
of the Divine influences be at all necessary to 
account for the pretension being made, or for tne 
prevailing belief in them; and what are the 
practical effects of the doctrine. 

In the first place, it will be proper to give some 
account of the different degrees in which the doc- 
trine of Divine influences is held by different 
l 3 



114 



THE DOCTRINE OE 



sects of Christians. In our established church the 
bishop undertakes to communicate the Holy Spirit 
to the candidate for ordination ; and although it 
might be difficult to say exactly what is meant by 
this phrase, there can be no doubt of its having 
been originally intended to imply, and implying as 
understood by most of those interested in the mat- 
ter, something supernatural. In one sect, public 
religious assemblies wait in silence until an im- 
mediate influence of the spirit lead some one to 
speak, and the individual is then thought to speak, 
not of his own knowledge, powers, or feelings, but 
what the spirit puts into his mouth. By others it 
is believed that every real Christian must become 
so by conversion, an agitating process which is 
considered as the work of the spirit in his mind. 
Many are persuaded that spiritual gifts are imme- 
diately drawn down into the assemblies of Chris- 
tians by prayer, and that supernatural influences 
are manifested in the groans, extravagant gestures 
and enthusiastic feelings of those who are present. 
Many believe that the doctrines which they em- 
brace have been communicated to them by the 
spirit, or at least are confident that in reading the 
Scriptures they enjoy such Divine guidance as to 
be directed with certainty to their right under- 
standing. They have prayed for light, and have 
felt it come to them, and they cannot, they fancy, 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



115 



be in the wrong. It is generally believed that 
fervent prayer is followed by certain special and 
immediate influences, which are not natural, but 
belong peculiarly by Divine favour to true reli- 
gion, and are only not to be called miraculous 
because the miracle is a continued one, the same 
spiritual influences being accessible to all who seek 
for them by the right means. Some who believe 
in these Divine influences are yet very cautious in 
guarding as much as possible against what may 
be thought enthusiastic or superstitious ; they are 
certain, as they say, from fact and experience, that 
good and pious men are, as the effect of prayer, 
by some spiritual influences consoled in sorrow, 
supported in trial, and aided in their search after 
truth ; and they will have these influences to be 
immediate, or communicated directly from God 
independently of the natural working of the mind, 
yet they deny that they are miraculous or super- 
natural. It is a distinction which I cannot, I 
confess, perfectly understand ; for if it be meant 
that God exercises a spiritual providence over his 
creatures distinct from his general providence, or 
forming a peculiar branch of it, according to which 
these influences are given, still, though it may 
not be thought correct to call them miraculous, 
they are surely supernatural, as they are inde- 
pendent of, and are accustomed to lead and over- 



116 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



come, the natural workings of the mind. They 
do not arise out of our physical or mental con- 
stitution, but act upon them, and in this properly 
consists the difference between those who believe 
and those who reject spiritual influences. The 
believer in them may refuse to call them mira- 
culous, as the providence of God in his opinion 
holds them out to all who seek them by proper 
means, and he who rejects them may believe the 
effects of prayer to be the gifts of God and the 
fruits of religion, because he considers God's Pro- 
vidence as universal, and his active energy as appear- 
ing in the fulfilment of all his laws, so that every 
thing which occurs in the course of nature is pro- 
perly his immediate act, but the difference consists 
in this : the believer in Divine influences supposes 
effects to be produced independently of our natural 
constitution; supposes an interference, no matter 
how often repeated, with the natural course of 
causes and effects. It is this which I deny and 
reject, and I maintain that if it be admitted in 
any form we give up the principle, the ground of 
argument, to those who make the highest pre- 
tensions I have noticed, and open the door for all 
sorts of delusions. We ourselves may avoid them, 
but we cannot say why they should not be be- 
lieved; we cannot reason against them with 
clearness and consistency. A Christian brother, 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



117 



labouring (as we are persuaded) under a delusion, 
believes that the spirit of truth has enlightened 
his mind, and that, under its guidance, he can- 
not err. He knows he is in the right, and will 
hear no reasoning to the contrary ; he relies on 
what is above all reasoning, Divine communi- 
cation; he has felt it and is confident. I may 
think all this presumptuous and absurd, yet what 
argument can I use against it ; why should I urge 
him to doubt, if I myself am prepared to say, I 
have in the hour of deep affliction felt, in prayer 
to God, a consolation more than human — an inde- 
scribable comfort, which must have been the im- 
mediate gracious communication of God ; it is my 
feeling that it came directly from him, and I can- 
not doubt it. What is pleaded for may be less re- 
volting to reason in the one case than in the other, 
but the ground is the same, and if there be suffi- 
cient evidence for believing the one, there must 
be, also, for believing the other. 

It is generally supposed, that the Christian 
Scriptures are exceedingly plain in their promises 
of extraordinary assistance, direction, and support 
to those who seek for it by earnest and fervent 
prayer ; and individuals differing widely as to the 
nature and degree of these communications, are 
equally confident in their belief that they are pro- 
mised. To me, however, the passages referred to 



118 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



on this subject are by no means satisfactory, re- 
lating, all of them, as I think, either to the ordinary 
course of Providence, or to those extraordinary 
and miraculous gifts of the early disciples which 
unquestionably belonged to the machinery em- 
ployed in the introduction and establishment of 
our religion, but had no connection with its in- 
fluence on the conduct and affections, and were 
neither intended nor fitted to be permanently at- 
tached to it. The notice which I shall take of 
some of the most important texts will, I trust, be 
sufficient to warrant this view of the question. 

In Matt, xxviii. 20, we have the promise of our 
Lord — " Lo, I am with you always," — i. e. it is ex- 
plained, in the Divine influences which I will be- 
stow on you — " to the end of the world." When it 
is observed, that the proper translation is, " to the 
end of the age" — meaning, as it would seem, from 
a careful comparison of passages in which the 
phrase occurs, until the final abolition of Judaism, 
at the destruction of Jerusalem — it will be mani- 
fest, that this promise refers to the miraculous 
assistance afforded to the first Christians. The 
similar promise, Matt, xviii. 20, " Where two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there am 
I in the midst of them," may also, without hesi- 
tation, be confined to the apostolic age, and to 
miraculous powers. I will mention one more text 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



119 



of this kind, Matt. xiii. 4 — " When they shall lead 
you and deliver you up, take no thought before- 
hand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premedi- 
tate — but whatever shall be given you in that hour, 
that speak ye : for it is not ye that speak, but the 
Holy Spirit." It is acknowledged by all believers, 
that the first age of the church was an age of 
miracles and supernatural gifts, and that those 
extraordinary aids have long since ceased. The 
promises made in these passages are promises of 
miraculous assistance, and are always found in 
discourses addressed to the apostles, in reference 
to their peculiar situation, as the teachers and 
promulgators of the Gospel; what, then, can be 
more natural and just, than to interpret them as 
temporary promises ? The concluding part of the 
Gospel of John is very instructive on the subject 
of spiritual gifts. Nothing can well be clearer, 
than that our Lord is here promising those gifts 
which first descended on the day of Pentecost, 
and which are acknowledged to have been peculiar 
to the apostolic age ; among these we find instruc- 
tion in the truth, and prophetic knowledge, besides 
outward signs; but we have precisely the same 
claims to the former and to the latter. 

If we consider that, in the first age, the mira- 
culous gifts of the spirit were very generally, if 
not universally, diffused amongst Christians, as 



120 THE DOCTRINE OF 

§ 

appears from various passages in Paul's epistles, 
we shall perceive that they do not occupy more of 
the notice of the sacred writers than the circum- 
stances of the early Church rendered necessary, 
and we may learn to be cautious in applying to 
ourselves language which belonged exclusively to 
the apostolic times. Thus when Paul prays that 
his converts may enjoy the communion or partici- 
pation of the Holy Spirit, he means of " miraculous 
powers," in which we must not hope to participate, 
and which we have no encouragement to wish or 
pray for : this language, therefore, cannot properly 
be applied by us to ourselves, or our brethren. 
When the same apostle talks of the " earnest of 
the Spirit/ - ' of being " sealed with the Spirit," 
&c, he speaks of external miraculous signs, ac- 
companying the disciples in the first age, not of 
anything which was common to them with true 
Christians in every period. 

Whenever, in any part of the New Testament, 
the gifts of the spirit there promised— and be it 
recollected that there is but one kind spoken of; 
there is no distinction there made between the 
temporary and the permanent — whenever these 
gifts are described and particularized, they are 
found to be, not influences on the mind calculated 
for the advantage of the individual, but faculties 
and powers especially qualifying him to be a 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



121 



teacher of the Gospel, or enabling him to exhibit 
proofs, of its divine origin and authority. Paul 
had occasion, 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, 10, to enumerate 
the various gifts bestowed on the disciples, accord- 
ing to the promise of Christ, yet he says not a word 
of Divine influences, similar to those pretended to 
by Christians of the present day : his list is as 
follows : — 1, the word of wisdom — meaning, a di- 
vinely enlightened judgment as to the best means 
of promoting the Gospel ; 2, the word of know- 
ledge — a miraculous acquaintance with the ge- 
nuine doctrines of the Gospel, such as was requisite 
for its first teachers ; 3, faith — by which is here 
meant, not a belief in the truth of Christianity, or 
in its peculiar doctrines, but a divinely communi- 
cated confidence in God's showing wonders by 
our means, as appears from the beginning of 
the following chapter — te though I have all faith, 
so that I could remove mountains," — where it is 
the apostle's object to show the worthlessness of 
extraordinary gifts compared with Christian love ; 
4, gifts of healing; 5, the working of other mi- 
racles; 6, the power of prophecy; 7, discern- 
ing of spirits — the gift of miraculously distin- 
guishing those who speak with a divine impulse 
from impostors, which must have been among 
the less common gifts, or the precept of the text 
would not have been necessary ; 8, different kinds 

M 



122 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



of languages; and, 9, the power of interpret- 
ing languages. Now, how very different these 
gifts of the apostolic age, which were suitable for 
the establishment of a new religion, and for quali- 
fying men to be its teachers and propagators, are 
from any which can, with any decency, be pre- 
tended to in these times, I may safely submit to 
the judgment of every candid inquirer. 

There is not, so far as I know, a single passage 
of Scripture, which directly sanctions the idea 
that spiritual gifts, of any kind, were designed to 
be continued in all ages of the Church. This is 
generally inferred, merely by an unfounded appli- 
cation to ourselves of promises made immediately 
to the first disciples ; but there are, if I mistake 
not, passages which necessarily lead to the con- 
trary conclusion — yet we need no more than the 
fact, that of the only spiritual gifts of which 
we have any accounts in the New Testament, 
all authentic accounts cease with the first age. It 
seems to me sufficiently clear, that in 1 Cor. xiii. 
the Apostle Paul contemplates a time when the 
gifts of the spirit should no longer be possessed 
by Christians ; and that it is in reference to this 
time that he speaks of faith, hope, and charity, 
the Christian virtues, as abiding or continuing. 
In the preceding chapter, he had been endeavour- 
ing to satisfy the Corinthians respecting the differ- 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 123 

ences of their miraculous gifts, and to allay the 
jealousy and discontent which this circumstance 
had occasioned among them. He here proceeds 
to insist on the worthlessness of these gifts, unless 
accompanied by those graces of the mind, which 
are the genuine fruits of the Gospel, and especially 
by love, the most excellent of Christian virtues, 
and in fact the vital principle of the religion of 
Jesus, in which, he would insinuate, the Corin- 
thians by their disputes showed themselves to be 
somewhat deficient. In order to display the supe- 
riority of this virtue over miraculous gifts, he re- 
marks that it never faileth ; that its importance and 
obligation can never cease, whilst all extraordinary 
gifts are designed to answer a temporary purpose, 
and will accordingly in a short time be withdrawn. 
" Charity never faileth ; but whether there be pro- 
phecies," i. e. powers of prophesying, "they shall 
fail: whether there be tongues, " the gift of speak- 
ing various languages, " they shall cease ; whether 
there be knowledge," miraculous knowledge, "it 
shall vanish away." But independently of those 
passages of Scripture really relating to miraculous 
gifts, which are often applied to the case of modern 
Christians, there are some others which have been 
appealed to on this subject, and which deserve our 
serious attention before we decide upon it. Thus 
Phil. ii. 13 : "For it is God that worketh in you 
m 2 



124 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



both to will and to do of his good pleasure," which 
is explained, that both our virtuous desires, and 
our strength for virtuous action, come immediately 
from God, so that the personal exertions which 
are required from us would be useless without his 
express and immediate aid. It seems to me, on 
the contrary, that the words refer to the aids 
afforded us by God in the course of his Provi- 
dence. We are to work out our salvation with a 
reverent regard to that Divine goodness which by 
the instructions and encouragements of the Gospel 
communicates to us both the desire and the 
means of doing what is right. We are to labour 
ourselves, but with humility, remembering that we 
owe every thing to God's grace, which gave the 
glorious Gospel of our Saviour, and caused us to 
hear its blessed sound. 

Besides, this text I have seen particularly ap- 
pealed to in favour of Divine influences, by one 
who holds the doctrine in its most moderate and 
rational form, and endeavours to distinguish what 
he claims from the spiritual gifts of the first 
age : the prayer of Peter, that " the God of. all 
grace would make the believers perfect, establish, 
strengthen, settle them-/ 3 the prayer of Paul, 
that " God would sanctify them wholly ; that he 
would comfort their hearts, and establish them in 
every good word and work the prayer of Christ, 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 125 

" Holy Father, keep through, thine own name 
those whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
one as we are one " and in short," concludes 
the writer, " if it were not true that God influences 
the hearts of those who seek him, the prayers of 
saints in all ages for spiritual blessings for them- 
selves or others have all been founded in delusion." 
That the prayers of many good men have to a 
certain degree been founded in delusion, is un- 
questionably the fact; but it does not follow that 
every expression of a pious and affectionate wish 
for our brethren, or every earnest desire for what 
is needful for ourselves, should be so ; for we may 
pray with fervour and with the humble hope of 
success, without any belief in immediate or super- 
natural influences, because the expression of our 
desires in submission to the Divine will is natural, 
reasonable and pious, and we have good ground 
for believing, both from Scripture and experience, 
that it is among the appointed means of culti- 
vating those dispositions and affections which are 
most important for our real welfare and happiness. 
Whatever effect is produced is however according 
to the ordinary course of Providence, and to the 
natural action of our feelings and principles, in 
consistency with the moral constitution of our 
frame, not any direct or immediate communica- 
tion. The prayers of the apostles above referred 
m 3 



126 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



to, are the expressions of pious and benevolent 
wishes, not for any extraordinary aids, but for the 
full efficacy and success of the Gospel by the 
means already employed. "With respect to the 
prayer of our Lord here quoted, it does not to my 
mind appear reasonable to suppose that it was 
employed as a means for effecting the object, but 
as at once a warm expression of his own benevolent 
wishes, and an encouragement, and, as it were, 
prophetic assurance to his disciples. Of the cha- 
racter of these public addresses of our Saviour, 
we may judge from what he said at the grave of 
Lazarus, " Father, I thank thee that thou hast 
heard me. I know indeed that thou hearest me 
always : but because of the multitude who stand by 
I have said this, that they may believe that thou 
hast sent me." 

Having spoken thus much of the Scripture evi- 
dence in favour of modern spiritual gifts, let us 
proceed to inquire in what cases we are justified in 
believing in the reality of pretended supernatural 
or immediate influences, and what proofs we ought 
to demand before we allow ourselves to be in any 
way directed or affected by them. It is rightly 
maintained that a disposition readily to believe 
the evidence of testimony is the most natural 
state of the human mind ; that we learn to doubt 
from finding that we have been deceived, and 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



127 



seldom feel disposed to disbelieve, except when 
our previous knowledge or experience seems incon- 
sistent with what is related to us, or the narrator 
has previously proved himself a deceiver. But 
this can of course be true only with respect to 
facts cognizable by the senses. Our belief in 
testimony is receiving the experience of others 
instead of our own, without which our knowledge 
must indeed be confined, and we could not even 
go through the ordinary affairs of a single day of 
our existence. But though we must necessarily 
be content to employ the senses of other persons 
in extending our knowledge, and cannot help 
acting on a belief in their testimony in a vast 
variety of cases, yet if we wish to know with 
certainty and to act with wisdom, we must exer- 
cise our judgments as to what we believe ; and 
when men assert what is in itself improbable, 
what they may have a particular motive for wishing 
us to believe, or what they were not in a situation 
or state of mind to perceive accurately, we should 
suspend our belief, much more should we cautiously 
withhold our assent in a case which could not at all 
have come under the cognizance of the senses, but 
is altogether a matter of opinion or imagination. 
Now this is precisely the case with all the accounts 
of extraordinary communications and immediate 
Divine influences unaccompanied by miracles. 



128 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



We in these times at once reject a ghost story, 
however apparently well authenticated, as absurd 
and unworthy of serious regard, and we do so 
with good reason, not because we refuse to hear 
testimony to extraordinary facts, but because 
whilst such narrations are inconsistent with our 
own experience, and with opinions which we con- 
sider as having the best foundation in reason and 
revelation, they admit of various simple and 
natural explanations. It may be the interest or 
the amusement of some person to excite terror ; 
or situation, surrounding scenery, or a particular 
state of mind and feelings, may have predisposed 
the imagination of the witness for being power- 
fully excited, so as to find for itself, in some trifling 
and indifferent object, a subject for awe and fear ; 
and we observe that in all such relations the 
scene is unfavourable to cautious investigation, and 
the object is perceived only by one sense. But 
in every relation of a supernatural appearance, 
where the witness is not an impostor, the senses 
of at least one individual have been deceived. 
Now if we readily allow that the imagination 
may have, and often has, such power as to deceive 
the senses, how much more likely is it that it 
may deceive where the senses are not at all ap- 
pealed to ; and if we are justified in many cases 
in rejecting even without particular inquiry, ac- 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



129 



counts relating to external appearances, how much 
more are we required to reject accounts of inward 
illuminations and influences on the mind, which 
are not capable of so much evidence as the most 
ridiculous ghost story. 

If pretensions to supernatural feelings and 
influences were confined to the members of any 
one Christian sect, or to the professors of Chris- 
tianity generally, or of any religion which does 
exist, or ever has existed, they might require 
more consideration ; but where is the age or the 
nation which has not produced individuals pre- 
tending to inspiration and extraordinary assist- 
ance ? and where is the distinction, so long as well- 
authenticated miracles are not exhibited, between 
the ancient and the modern, the Heathen and the 
Christian, the Papist and the evangelical enthu- 
siast? What strange contradictions are they 
bound to receive who will believe every man on 
his mere assertion, that he enjoys supernatural 
assistance, and how inconsistent and unreasonable 
is their conduct, if without any difference in the 
evidence they admit the pretensions of some ac- 
cording to their own choice, but not of all ! At 
this moment, not to leave our own country, and to 
put out of the question all ancient and distant 
claims, how must the mind of that man be dis- 
tracted by doubt, and disturbed by the perpetual 



130 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



clashing of discordant opinions, who listens to the 
dicta of any enthusiast who persuades himself that 
he enjoys the influences of the Holy Spirit : and 
yet in the total absence of all external signs, how 
is he to determine whom he will believe, unless 
he will take the height of extravagance as an 
index of the measure of inspiration, and consider 
the absence of reason as a proof of the presence of 
the spirit ? 

The situation of those persons is certainly very 
different who make no pretensions to commu- 
nications of infallible truth, and show no desire to 
lead their brethren, who disclaim as much as pos- 
sible the idea of any thing supernatural, and only 
suppose that they receive immediate aids from the 
Father of spirits ; but I have shown that the dis- 
tinction between supernatural and immediate can- 
not be sustained ; that whatever is not the natural 
and ordinary result of the constitution of the 
human mind, is supernatural, however regularly or 
diffusively bestowed ; and what is natural cannot 
be immediate in any proper sense : for immediate, 
if it mean anything, means independently of the 
course of nature. As therefore it is extremely 
important to decide on the character of these 
more modest and harmless claims, as well as of 
those which seem to us more extravagant, we 
must come to the question of their evidence, and 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



131 



we shall find that it is simply the persuasion of 
the individual, which, if received, would equally 
serve the wildest enthusiast. 

The only proper and credible proof which can 
be afforded by any person, of his having received 
communications or influences of any kind, out of 
the ordinary course of nature and Providence, or 
which differ from the natural workings of a 
human mind, under his circumstances and opi- 
nions, is the exhibition of a miracle. This proof 
our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles and first 
disciples were enabled to afford. This proof was 
also given by all the most distinguished of God's 
ancient prophets and messengers, and by all who 
exercised authority in his name, or acted for him, 
excepting at least in some cases of prophecy alone, 
where the fulfilment of near predictions served to 
justify belief in the more remote, — and that too 
as a regular part of a dispensation already esta- 
blished by abundant miraculous evidences ; and we 
ought unhesitatingly to reject all claims to in- 
spiration or spiritual guidance and assistance of 
whatsoever kind or degree, where this proof is not 
set before us. If we do not, we weaken the 
evidence of Divine Revelation. We place enthu- 
siasts who can produce no higher authority than 
their own assertions respecting their inward feel- 
ings, almost on a level with those inspired teachers 



13.2 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



of old, who, whilst they revealed the future to the 
eye of faith, delivered the doctrines of Divine 
truth, and spake the words of heavenly wisdom, 
gave satisfactory testimonies of the source from 
whence they derived their knowledge in the mira- 
cles, and signs, and wonders which God did by 
them, which were done openly and publicly, and 
submitted to the examination of their enemies as 
well as friends, so as to exclude the possibility 
of deceit, and establish a just claim to general 
belief. 

I must add a few words as to the evidence 
which is necessary before we can be justified in 
any of us believing that we ourselves receive spiri- 
tual guidance, assistance, or support, or any direct 
communications from above ; and here, as before, 
it seems to me necessary that we should insist on 
some external sign, plainly exhibited to others as 
well as ourselves, and appropriated to us as a 
proof of our intercourse with God, by our being 
enabled to foretell and command it, which is I 
think an accurate description of a miracle. The 
reasoning already employed is as applicable to 
this case as to our judgment of the pretensions of 
others ; only it may be well here to insist a little 
more upon the point of our being liable to be so 
deceived by our imaginations, that we have no 
right to trust to inward feelings alone as esta- 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 133 

blishing any preternatural communications. It 
is an extraordinary fact, that when Lord Herbert, 
of Cherburg, whose name should always be men- 
tioned with respect, for his virtues and good inten- 
tions, though he is ranked amongst Deistical writers, 
was in doubt as to the propriety of giving to the 
world the principal of his publications, his scruples 
were overcome by his imagining that he received a 
visible and sensible sign from heaven. There is 
no reason for doubting Lord Herbert's sincerity. 
His narrative shows that though assuming the 
character of a philosopher, he was really an enthu- 
siast, and it illustrates the necessity of our being 
cautious how we trust even to supposed external 
signs which we have no part in producing, and 
which are witnessed by none but ourselves ; and 
how much more reason have we for caution, when 
we have to do, not with our senses, but with our 
feelings. Let any man of lively sensibility and 
warm imagination recollect his feelings in moments 
of ecstatic devotion, when under the influence of 
the more sublime and romantic scenes of nature, 
the wonders of art, or the nobler productions of 
genius, and if education and deeply-rooted opinions 
have preserved him from such delusion, he can at 
least easily conceive how the idea of supernatural 
influences may get possession of the mind which 
is previously prepared for it, and may see how in 

N 



134 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



certain cases ideas, sentiments and affections may 
be excited with so peculiar a vividness and energy 
as to be considered as having a different origin 
from our ordinary states of mind. 

When we have subtracted the vast and melan- 
choly sum of interested deceivers, there will re- 
main on the long list of pretenders to Divine 
influences, very many who can be considered in no 
other light than as the victims of self-delusion, as 
having mistaken natural feelings and impressions 
for Divine communications, and if they have de- 
ceived others, having first been deceived them- 
selves. To guard ourselves against similar delusions 
it is necessary that we should maintain the domi- 
nion of reason over our feelings and passions, and 
cautiously "try the spirits, whether they be of 
God." We should never suffer our opinions and 
previous decisions to be influenced by our feelings 
in moments of enthusiasm, produced by events or 
situations of peculiar interest, but give to the calm 
and sober hour of reflection the control over our 
judgments and the direction of our conduct. We 
should be especially careful that motives of inte- 
rest or of vanity do not secretly associate them- 
selves with feelings excited by impressive events 
or situations, so as to inspire us with the belief 
that we are favoured with peculiar guidance or 
assistance, and produce changes in the religious 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



135 



state of our minds which dispassionate reason can- 
not approve, and which cannot promote our real 
advancement in Christian excellence. 

On the question whether the supposition of the 
reality of Divine influences be at all necessary to 
account for the pretensions made to them, or for 
the general belief in them, I need now add very 
few words ; the difference between those who be- 
lieve in them and those who deny them is, it must 
be recollected, respecting the proper mode of 
accounting for certain states of mind which are 
by all known and acknowledged to exist. On the 
one side it is maintained that they are produced 
by immediate Divine influences; on the other, 
that they arise out of natural causes, and re- 
sult from the general laws of the human mind. 
Now if it be recollected that each religious party, 
whilst confident of having directly received from 
God certain feelings of their own, without diffi- 
culty perceives the pretensions of others to be 
delusive, we shall see that it is upon the whole 
generally acknowledged that natural causes are 
capable of producing all the symptoms : and as for 
the prevailing belief, that we know to be a most 
uncertain and deceitful criterion of truth ; and if 
we be at all intelligent and active in forming just 
opinions, we are accustomed frequently to set it 
aside. 

n 2 



136 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



Those who suppose that the effects which have 
been produced by enthusiastic preachers, even 
on those who had gone to hear them with feelings 
of ridicule or contempt, are unaccountable on 
natural principles, need only recur to the enthu- 
siasm of certain Pagan priests and prophets, and 
to various instances of communicated enthusiasm 
in the history of those whom they will not readily 
suspect of being divinely influenced. As to those 
more quiet and secret feelings which some so 
confidently attribute to the immediate agency 
of God, it need only be asked, according to the 
nature of our minds, what other effects could our 
religious principles and hopes, and our contem- 
plation of God and heavenly things, produce, than 
these very consolations, supports and aids which 
are thus hastily ascribed to an extraneous cause ? 
Or what is the value of our Christian principles, if 
such effects do not arise out of them ? 

We now come to our last inquiry respecting the 
actual utility of Divine influences continued in the 
church, and the practical effects of belief in them. 
IfaDivine influence on the mind be now necessary 
for conversion, i. e. for producing a sufficient and 
effectual belief, with a corresponding change of 
mind and character, the various evidences of the 
truth and authority of our holy religion, which 
have been preserved amidst the revolutions of 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 137 

human affairs, are altogether useless, being unable 
to produce in the mind a genuine amd saving 
faith. If we cannot attain to the true sense and 
right understanding of the sacred Scriptures with- 
out our minds being illumined with supernatural 
light, the same Divine effusion might as easily 
instruct us in all that is necessary } unassisted by 
the written word, and the Scriptures might as 
well have perished in those ages of darkness, 
during which a watchful Providence protected and 
multiplied them. If the glorious promises of the 
Gospel, and the animating and delightful hopes it 
is fitted to inspire, cannot support the mind under 
affliction, and afford it consolation in suffering, 
unless aided by a balm of miraculous power, are 
they not then insufficient for their purpose, and 
might not the heavenly gift have been as well 
bestowed alone ? If the precepts of an inspired 
instructor, and the plain exhibition of the oppo- 
site consequences of virtue and vice cannot, when 
duly and habitually considered, give strength to 
resist temptation and afford sufficient motives 
for perseverance in the paths of holiness and 
virtue, to what end, I would ask, do we read our 
Bibles ? What are we to gain by the study of 
our Saviour's words and actions ? Why was a 
revelation given to us which, without a continued 
miracle, is unequal to our salvation ? or what 
n3 



138 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



cause have we to rejoice in its light, unless we 
can also be sure that we have received those 
supernatural gifts without which it can be of no 
service to us ? 

Even the most moderate notions of Divine in- 
fluences cannot, as it appears to me, be defended 
from the charge of lowering the value of religious 
principles, by ascribing what properly belongs to 
tliem to an extraneous cause. Why does the good 
and pious man enjoy a peace above what the world 
can give ? Why do sweet and soothing consola- 
tions spring up in his mind in the hour of bereave- 
ment and sorrow ? Whence does he derive those 
supplies of strength, which enable him to triumph 
over suffering and temptation ? What are those 
aids which he experiences in his sincere endeavours 
to improve in Christian knowledge and virtue ? 
The believer in Divine influences considers all 
these blessings as being directly and immediately 
communicated from our heavenly Father, in answer 
to our prayers. But how much more beautifully 
do they show forth the excellence of our holy faith, 
when regarded as its own fruits, as its genuine 
effects on the heart of the sincere and faithful 
disciple ! — the prayer being only the means of 
calling forth these effects into more lively and 
active exercise. 

The practical usefulness of the example of our 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



139 



Lord Jesus Christ himself, depends a great deal 
upon our conviction, that the transcendent excel- 
lences and beauties which his character displays 
are not either the necessary result of a superior 
nature, or the effect of immediate irresistible 
influences from above, but are the consequences 
— according to the constitution and laws of the 
human mind — of the clear and constant perception 
of the Divine presence and perfections, and the 
full and perfect conviction of those truths respect- 
ing God's character, will, and purposes, which he 
came to make known, acting on a mind early 
trained to a sense of duty, and not previously 
tainted by the corruption of vice. Our Lord's 
pre-eminence thus belongs to his situation as the 
divinely authorized messenger of a perfect religious 
system ; but his conduct and character illustrate 
the real effects of the principles which he com- 
municated or enforced : and in proportion as we 
receive those principles in sincere faith, and ha- 
bitually meditate upon and apply them, we must 
acquire more of his spirit, and approach nearer 
and nearer in our imitation of his excellence. 
He is not to be regarded by us as a pattern to be 
servilely copied, but as a living representation 
of the natural effects of piety, holiness, and 
sincere undoubting faith in things unseen, but 
infinitely important, working in an uncorrupted 



140 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



human mind. It is by acquiring his principles, 
and so dwelling upon them, and feeling their 
truth, as for them to produce their natural effects, 
that we are to follow in his steps ; and if we really 
believe and feel what he came by divine authority 
to teach us, we cannot but be followers of him, 
though entirely unaided by any special or imme- 
diate influences. 

There can be no doubt of the tendency of a 
belief in our possession of peculiar gifts to produce 
spiritual pride, a contempt of our brethren, and a 
very deceitful and pernicious confidence in the 
excellence of our own state ; and it is the greatest 
possible enemy to the serious and candid search 
after truth. It is in vain to urge upon him who 
imagines that he reads the Scriptures with Divine 
illumination, any arguments against his opinions. 
You may demonstrate that he is grossly perverting 
the true meaning of the sacred writers, and may 
bring their own clearest words against the doc- 
trines he derives from them, but in vain ; you are 
reasoning against the spirit, and he only condemns 
you as an obstinate heretic. No man can take a 
single step towards the right understanding of his 
Bible, or has the remotest chance of improving his 
religious views by the study of it, until he has 
abandoned his presumptuous confidence in those 
prejudices which he fancies to be Divine light, 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



141 



and applies himself with humility to impar- 
tial study, and the use of rational means. I 
know no obstacle so great to the progress of 
religious knowledge and truth, as a confidence in 
imaginary spiritual guidance, and, consequently, 
no error which it is more important vigorously 
to oppose. 

I shall not stop to speak of the disgrace to 
religion which has often arisen from the de- 
grading scenes of supposed spiritual influences 
among some sects. It will easily be understood 
to what sort of extravagances I allude, and I 
trust that they are very generally regarded with 
shame and disgust ; but let me propose it for your 
candid consideration, whether such extravagances 
do not naturally and fairly arise out of the belief 
in Divine influences, as maintained by many who 
themselves apply the doctrine more soberly, and 
whether there is any justifiable ground for resist- 
ing the pretensions of the wildest enthusiasts, so 
long as we admit what many of our friends, whose 
piety is rational as well as sincere, and who only 
wish to serve the interests of pure religion, con- 
tend for as necessary. I myself can find no solid 
ground on which to rest, but in the denial of all 
mysterious, supernatural, or immediate influences, 
by whatever name they may be called. I deny, 
on the grounds already explained, that the expec- 



142 



THE DOCTRINE OF 



tation of them is authorized by Scripture, fairly 
interpreted. I deny that any evidence is offered 
in their favour, which ought to satisfy any reflect- 
ing and inquiring man. I deny that any case is 
made out for their necessity or usefulness. It 
seems to me that religion consists in the working 
in our minds, according to the laws of our intel- 
lectual and moral nature, of those great principles 
of faith and love which, though true and incalcu- 
lably important, could never have been so believed 
and felt as to be fully influential, if they had not 
been propounded with the authority of Divine 
Revelation. I cannot conceive how the principles 
themselves, really believed and felt, should fail to 
produce their effects : and I must think that reli- 
gion is sadly degraded by those who will not trust 
to its own power and its own influences, but sup- 
pose extraordinary supplemental influences upon 
the mind to be indispensably required. I hope, 
and for myself I am persuaded, that there is no- 
thing in the doctrine I have maintained to chill 
the ardour of piety, destroy the efficiency of 
prayer, or deprive us of the invaluable bless- 
ings of our holy faith, in seasons of peculiar 
need; on the contrary, I believe that it opens 
to us the truest and highest benefits of religion, 
and enables us to take the most reasonable and 
just views of the manner in which they are pro- 



DIVINE INFLUENCES. 



143 



duced. With this conviction, I recommend the 
arguments I have used to your candid conside- 
ration, earnestly desiring that you may be able to 
discern the truth, and that you may fully feel 
the benefits which, when fully applied, it never 
fails to produce. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



Hebrews xi. 1. 

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence 
of things not seen." 

In discoursing from these words, I propose, after 
some preliminary observations on the different ap- 
plications of the term "faith" in the New Testa- 
ment, to inquire in what sense it expresses a 
moral and Christian virtue, cautioning you against 
some common errors on the subject, which I ap- 
prehend lead to very serious evils, and then to 
dwell on its true nature and importance. 

The proper meaning of the word faith is belief 
or trust, but, like other words which express 
abstract qualities, it is so limited and modified 
by the connection in which it occurs, that it 
is only by a careful attention to this that we can 
perceive its exact force in particular passages. 

Among Christians the word soon came to 
signify more particularly a belief in the reality of 
the Divine mission, and miraculous powers of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and a firm trust in the hea- 
venly guidance and protection which he enjoyed, 
o 



146 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



In this manner we find it commonly used in the 
Gospels. Thus, for example, when the man sick 
of the palsy was let down through the roof into 
the house where Jesus was at Capernaum, the 
Evangelist relates that because he saw their faith 
(saw that they believed him to have power from 
above), he said unto the sick man, " Son, thy sins 
are forgiven thee ! " which expressed, according to 
the Jewish idiom, that he was cured of his disease. 

So when Jesus had rebuked the wind, and 
calmed the raging of the sea, he said to his ter- 
rified companions, " Why are ye so fearful ? How 
is it that ye have no faith ? " Have you no con- 
fidence in God, who is able to protect us, and will 
not suffer those to perish whom he has chosen to 
fulfil the important purposes of his Providence ? 

And when Peter went to meet Jesus walking 
on the water, as long as he believed that by the 
same Divine assistance which was so remarkably 
afforded to his master he was able to do so, he did 
not sink ; but when he saw the wind boisterous he 
was afraid, and he began to sink : immediately 
Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, 
saying, " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
thou doubt V 3 

A frequent meaning of faith in the Epistles of 
Paul is belief in Christianity, and, particularly, 
trust in what it teaches as a means of obtaining 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



147 



the favour of God, in opposition to a dependence 
on the ivorks, that is, the rites and ceremonies of 
the Jewish law. In this sense, which is very 
common, and a careful attention to which is requi- 
site for understanding many parts of the Epistles, 
it should be observed that faith includes and im- 
plies the necessity of practising the duties of 
Christianity as well as of believing its doctrines, 
and that it is never opposed to a belief in the 
importance of moral duties, but always to reliance 
upon the ceremonies of a ritual law. As examples, 
I may refer to Gal. ii. 16 : " Knowing that a man 
is not justified by the works of the Law, (i. e. 
most certainly, by the ceremonial observances of 
the Mosaic Ritual,) but by the faith (by the re- 
ligion) of Jesus Christ." And Philipp. iii. 9: "That 
I may be found in him, not having mine own 
righteousness, (justification,) which is of the law, 
(which is founded on my conformity to the Mosaic 
ceremonial), but that which is through the faith 
(the religion) of Christ." 

You are not ignorant how dreadfully such 
passages as these are perverted by understanding 
" works 93 and " the law " of the rules and acts of 
moral duty, and "faith" of the reception of a 
peculiar creed. The sense of the word now noticed 
should be particularly kept in view in reading the 
Epistle to the Romans . A remarkable example, 
o 2 



148 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



hardly differing from these, is found in Gal. iii. 23 : 
" Before faith came, (before the Gospel was 
given,) we were under the law, but after that 
faith is come we are no longer under a school- 
master." 

In the Epistle of J ames, faith is employed in a 
stricter sense, and with fewer accessory ideas, 
for belief in the truth of Christianity, and in the 
importance of what it prescribes ; the apostle 
declaring that mere belief can be of no use or 
advantage, if it do not lead to practice. " What 
doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he 
hath faith, and have not works ? Can faith save 
him? Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith 
without works is dead." The second chapter of 
the Epistle of James is perfectly consistent with 
all St. Paul's Epistles, properly understood and 
explained with a regard to the connection and 
peculiar phraseology, for the two apostles use the 
words faith and works in an entirely different 
sense; but it can never be reconciled with the 
most common modern interpretation of those 
Epistles, nor with any system which teaches that 
good works are not essential for obtaining the 
Divine favour. 

Other shades of difference in the meaning of the 
word faith, according to the various connections 
in which it occurs, might be pointed out ; but my 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 149 

present purpose will be sufficiently answered, if I 
add an explanation of its force and design in our 
text. The beginning of the eleventh chapter 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews must be viewed in 
its relation to the preceding paragraph at the 
close of the tenth chapter. The writer, (x. 38,) 
quoting and applying to his purpose some words 
of the prophet Habakkuk, says, " Now the just 
shall live by faith rather, he who is just by faith 
shall live ; " but if any man draw back, my soul 
shall have no pleasure in him ; but we are not 
of those that draw back unto perdition, (destruc- 
tion,) but of them that believe unto the saving of 
the soul (unto salvation) ." He then goes on in 
the words of the text, to describe the nature of 
this saving faith. It is difficult to give any thing 
approaching the full force of the original in our 
language, without falling into long explanations. 
The force of the word rendered substance is such 
a firm persuasion, as gives as it were a present 
substantial existence to the things we hope for. 
The other word rendered evidence in our common 
version, means whatever produces strong con- 
viction, and is put here for the effect produced by 
the strongest evidence. We will translate the 
text : " Now faith is a confidence in things hoped 
for, a conviction of things not seen," meaning 
things promised or foretold by God, but which 
o 3 



150 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



have not yet come to pass. Faith consists in 
having so firm and full a belief in the truth of 
God's promises, as always to act with a real regard 
to them. 

The salvation of which the writer to the He- 
brews is here particularly speaking is a temporal 
one, and the prophecies particularly referred to 
are those of our Lord, relating to the destruction 
of Jerusalem and the close of the Jewish dispen- 
sation. This I infer from the words almost imme- 
diately preceding : " Yet a little while, and he 
that shall come (he who is promised and expected) 
will come, and will not tarry," which according to 
the analogy of all similar expressions must be so 
explained. The design seems to be to prevent the 
Hebrew converts from falling away from their 
profession, through impatience and distrust re- 
specting that awful event to which they were 
taught to look forward as the final confirmation of 
their religion, by urging upon them the duty of 
patience, and a confident belief in Divine pro- 
mises, which were delivered to them with such 
abundance of evidence . What was to Christians 
of that time a subject of faith, has long since 
become a matter of history, but the quality which 
is here described and recommended is one which 
is equally required in all ages, since in this im- 
perfect and transitory world men should always 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



151 



look forward into futurity, and be influenced in 
their conduct by a regard to the assurances they 
have received respecting the Divine character, and 
to the revelations and promises of God respecting 
another state of being. 

Let us, in the remainder of this discourse, con- 
sider the Christian virtue of Faith, as it ought to 
be cultivated by us — in what it consists, what its 
effects should be, and what are the means of ac- 
quiring it. We shall, at the same time, naturally 
be led to distinguish it from a sort of faith which 
often receives mistaken approbation, but which 
ought to be considered as at once degrading and 
pernicious — I mean the unresisting reception of 
what is imposed on us by human authority, with- 
out our pretending to understand its evidences, 
and whilst we refuse to give attention to what may 
be offered in opposition to them. 

Mere belief being no more than the effect which 
evidence produces upon the mind, and not at all 
under the influence of the will, is not a moral 
quality, and cannot partake of the nature either 
of virtue or vice. The supposition of desire or 
determination in favour of one side of a contro- 
verted question, implies either a preference of 
error to truth, which is perfectly absurd, or a pre- 
vious conviction in favour of that side to which we 
incline. If this conviction have reasonable grounds, 



152 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



the prejudice is natural and useful, and stronger 
evidence on the opposite side will always be sure 
to overcome it ; if it be no more than blind sub- 
mission to the authority of erring fellow-mortals, 
who claim a right to direct our opinions, it is not 
entitled to a feather's weight in the balance, and is 
despised by every liberal and intelligent mind. 

Where a man has used his best endeavours to 
obtain the truth, his involuntary errors cannot 
possibly be criminal ; his inability to believe cer- 
tain doctrines, if they be true, must doubtless be 
a disadvantage to him ; but, be they true or false, 
it can never be made, by a just and merciful God, 
a ground of punishment against him. Neither, 
on the other hand, is it possible for belief alone to 
confer any advantage whatever — for, if the belief 
be well-founded, and yet do not influence a man's 
practice, it only renders him liable to the heavier 
condemnation ; and if it be ill-founded, it is but a 
sign of his weakness or culpable inattention to the 
means of discovering truth. To bend the mind to 
the belief of dogmas against which the reason 
revolts, has been absurdly deemed meritorious. It 
is, in fact, the same thing as if we were to close 
our eyes against the light of heaven, or to wrap 
ourselves in darkness and obscurity, lest we should 
see and be led to admire the grandeur and beauty 
of the Creator's works. 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



153 



The rational and enlightened mind judges cor- 
rectly, according to the evidence which is placed 
before it. Ignorance and weakness are the parents 
of credulity. Vanity, self-conceit, and superficial 
knowledge, are the fruitful sources of scepticism. 
It is the duty of every man, diligently and humbly 
to employ the means of discovering truth — espe- 
cially on the most important subjects, which may 
be placed within his power ; but when he has done 
all, there can be no merit in his belief of any 
doctrine or opinion which his inquiries may lead 
him to adopt. It can be useful to him only by 
the pleasure which knowledge always affords, or 
by the influence it may be calculated to have over 
his conduct and affections; and if his mistakes 
could be made a ground of moral condemnation 
and punishment, wretched indeed would be the 
condition of human nature, since error is a part of 
the inheritance of man here below — the natural 
and necessary result of the imperfection of his 
powers and the narrowness of his views. 

That this reasoning is fully as applicable to reli- 
gious as to all other subjects, must appear evident, 
on the least consideration, for the truths of reli- 
gion are not forced into our minds, or offered to us 
with an absolute assurance of their authority, but 
they claim our attention as having sufficient evi- 
dence, and they are to do us good only by being 



154 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



received on reasonable conviction. He who from 
vanity and self-conceit refuses to examine the 
evidences of revelation, or pertly and contemptu- 
ously rejects it, because he dislikes what it com- 
mands and teaches, is certainly highly culpable. 
But we know it to be sometimes the case, that the 
sincere lover of truth is unable to satisfy his mind 
respecting it, or even acquires a strong opposing 
belief ; and we ought to be aware that, however 
we may wonder and grieve, we have no right to 
condemn ; that it would be absurd presumption 
in us to threaten future punishments, or to repre- 
sent the want of what we hold to be a right be- 
lief, as rendering his virtues useless, and exposing 
him to the wrath of God. 

There is no doubt apparent Scripture authority 
for the severe condemnation of those who resist a 
right belief, but it is always in cases where such 
resistance implies and includes moral corruption. 
Where pride, selfishness, and worldly- mindedness, 
rendered all evidence unavailing for the establish- 
ment of truth, and malice was carried to the ex- 
treme, of ascribing to an evil power the miracles 
which formed the only available proofs of Divine 
authority, condemnation from a teacher of holiness 
was absolutely called for ; but that condemnation 
is misapprehended when it is interpreted, of eter- 
nal misery, since where punishments are threat- 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



155 



ened against unbelievers, they will be found to be 
temporal. 

The character which caused the great body of 
the Jews of our Lord's time to reject his religion, 
is one which, wherever it occurs, the moralist 
must severely condemn j but to argue from such 
condemnation for the guilt of involuntary error, is 
most inconsequential, and to identify the case of 
those who, in these times, conscientiously disbe- 
lieve our religion, with that of those whose cha- 
racters are described and condemned in the Gos- 
pel history, would be most unreasonable and un- 
candid. 

In respect to the many differences of opinion, 
some of them relating to matters of great import- 
ance, which exist amongst those who agree in 
recognizing the truth and Divine authority of 
revelation, may we not say, if God has not 
thought fit to make everything so clear that it will 
admit of no doubt, by what authority do men pre- 
sume to condemn their brethren because they 
cannot see with their eyes, or judge with their 
understandings ? — or with what degree of reason 
and justice can the errors of those who have sin- 
cerely desired, and, as far as their circumstances 
allowed, earnestly endeavoured to know the pure 
doctrines of the Gospel, be imputed to them as 
crimes, and made the ground of their condemna- 



156 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



tkm? No doubt truth is really important, and 
on its increased diffusion the improvement of hu- 
man society greatly depends. There is every 
reason for endeavouring to acquire, and by fair 
and candid methods to diffuse it ; but it is import- 
ant by its influences and applications, like truth 
on all other subjects — there is no merit in admit- 
ting its evidences, nor criminality in inability to 
perceive or estimate them. When faith is used 
to signify mere belief, we may well ask, with St. 
James — " what doth it profit, my brethren, if any 
one say he hath faith, and hath not works ? Can 
faith save him V } " Faith, if it hath not works, is 
dead, being alone." We may be assured, that a 
mere belief of any doctrines or opinions, however 
true or important, can by no means contribute to 
our salvation ; and that a readiness to believe, 
without sufficient evidence, is so far from being a 
virtue, that it is only a proof of ignorance, weak- 
ness, or indifference. 

Very different is that faith which is recommended 
to us in Scripture, and which it is our duty, as 
Christians, to cultivate. Truly, it is described as 
" a confidence in things hoped for, a certain and 
constant conviction of things not seen." It con- 
sists in bringing our belief in the perfections and 
providence of God, and in his promises relating to 
ourselves, from our reason to our conduct, and 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



157 



so associating it with our feelings, that it shall 
be an ever-present and active principle in our 
minds. 

We probably all believe, for the voice of uni- 
versal nature proclaims it, and it is clearly de- 
clared in a revelation, which on satisfactory 
evidence we receive as of Divine authority, that 
God is a being most powerful, wise and good, 
and that he governs the whole universe, directing 
all events, providing for all his creatures with 
paternal care, and constantly promoting their 
truest happiness. But we may be fully satisfied 
respecting these truths, not even daring to admit 
the least doubt concerning them, and yet we may 
derive from them little or no advantage. Our 
faith must not be merely the assent of the under- 
standing, it must also be the conviction of the 
heart. It must not be merely a speculative belief, 
which pleases in the hour of undisturbed reflec- 
tion, but a glowing confidence producing content- 
ment in every situation, enabling us to bear the 
severest trials of adversity and affliction with calm 
resignation, and leading us to seek amidst the 
darkest scenes the good which we are sure they 
are intended to produce, though the gloom may 
hide it from our feeble sight. We believe, on 
the authority of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that 
we are designed for another state of existence 
p 



158 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



after we leave the present world, and that our 
condition in it depends upon our conduct here. 
These great truths claim our regard on evidence of 
the most convincing kind, to which our reason 
yields its full assent; but this is not enough. 
Does our belief influence our minds so as to 
regulate our actions? Do we conduct ourselves 
as strangers and pilgrims upon earth, who seek for 
a better country, even an heavenly one ? Does " a 
conviction of things not seen," ever present to our 
hearts, strengthen us against temptation, preserve 
us from what is evil, and establish us in everything 
which is holy, virtuous, and good? These, my 
brethren, are the genuine effects of true Christian 
faith. Founded in reason, it disdains to accom- 
modate itself to the wild fancies of ignorant en- 
thusiasts, or to lend its support to absurdities, 
which may enjoy the patronage either of power or 
fashion ; but, adapted to the nature and wants of 
man, it rises above a cold inanimate belief. It 
brings the feelings to the support of virtue and 
religion; it guides the conduct, and controls the 
actions ; it gives a present existence to futurities, 
and almost raises the veil which conceals from 
mortal eyes the mysteries of Providence. It is a 
companion, a guide, a support amidst all the vary- 
ing scenes of this uncertain world, directing us in 
the path we should follow, and showing its power 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



159 



in the works we perform ; heightening our joys, 
enabling ns to sustain our afflictions, standing by 
us and encouraging us in that last struggle from 
which nature shrinks, and leaving us only when 
all its promises are accomplished, and we enjoy 
the full and clear perception of all which it taught 
us to anticipate. 

A few words we will add respecting the proper 
means of acquiring and cultivating this animating 
and delightful faith. Although the conviction of 
the understanding be a thing which we cannot 
command, and for which we certainly have not 
been made accountable, yet the extent of the in- 
fluence which, when attained, it has over the con- 
duct, depends much upon our own moral state. 
If we are thoughtless and indifferent, we may 
chance to acquire the purest principles without 
their doing us much good. It matters little whe- 
ther our opinions be true or false, if they are only 
to be subjects of speculation, not principles and 
rules of action ; and it is abundantly certain, that 
such is the natural power of present and visible 
things over the human mind, that a mere belief 
founded in reason, in the most important truths 
respecting things distant and unseen, will produce 
little effect, unless they acquire something of the 
character and force of present things, by means of 
a well- cultivated faith. Such a faith is founded 
P % 



160 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



on evidence ; but it requires that the mind should 
frequently and earnestly dwell on the subjects to 
which it relates, so that they may become asso- 
ciated with the familiar trains of thought; that 
principles should be followed out into their conse- 
quences, and that there should be such an exercise 
of the imagination in realizing promised futurities, 
and forming a lively picture of what shall be, from 
the materials furnished by the present and the 
past, that it may have power to arrest our atten- 
tion, and, aided by the superior real importance 
which our judgment must ascribe to it, may pre- 
vail over the seductive influence of what, for the 
present, assumes the aspect of pleasure. We 
should accustom ourselves to reflect on the great 
truths which are the subject of our faith, in con- 
nection, not so much with their evidences (with 
which, however, it is our duty to make ourselves 
well acquainted), as with their influences, and to 
consider their relations to our own condition and 
happiness. We should carefully observe those 
clear and visible displays of the Divine Providence 
and perfections, which illustrate and confirm our 
belief, and bring it in a manner home to our 
feelings, through the medium of the senses. We 
should endeavour to moderate the power which 
present things have over us, by a due considera- 
tion of the shortness and uncertainty of our tenure 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



161 



upon earth, and the trifling importance of all 
worldly things, which at the best are so change- 
able, and have so much that is painful inter- 
mingled with them, compared with our condition 
hereafter. We should contemplate, with interest, 
the effects of a rational and lively faith upon 
others, especially considering, as our pattern and 
guide, the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, in 
which we see what human nature becomes under 
the habitual influence of this elevating principle ; 
and we should fervently pray for the Divine bless- 
ing and assistance in acquiring it ; for though it 
cannot be believed that the prayers of weak 
mortals can change the counsels of unerring wis- 
dom, yet we are taught that this is an appointed 
means of obtaining spiritual blessings, and we 
know, by experience, that when sincere and fer- 
vent, it is always the greatest assistance in ac- 
quiring them. 

We will leave it to the presumptuous sceptic to 
seek out all the pain, and suffering and vice that 
is in the world, and because his narrow view can- 
not penetrate the mysteries of Providence, or 
understand those plans which extend throughout 
eternity, daringly to pronounce that all is evil. 
We will leave it to the gloomy religious enthusiast, 
wrapped up in self, to imagine the eternal misery 
of millions of his fellow creatures, and to give 
r 3 



16.2 



CHRISTIAN FAITH. 



God glory for such a prospect. Be ours, my 
friends, that delightful confidence in the Divine 
perfections, which when the throne is enveloped 
in the darkest clouds, can with the eye of faith 
see the Supreme Ruler of all, from " seeming 
evil still educing good." 

If others murmur at the perverseness of fate, 
or lament the fickleness of fortune, be ours that 
firm trust in Providence which will enable us to 
receive all events as the appointments of a father, 
and to apply ourselves humbly and cheerfully to 
improve his severest chastenings; if others will 
pursue the glittering baubles of this world, regard- 
less of their future destination, be ours that lively 
conviction of things not seen, which will raise us 
above the vanities of this transitory life, and make 
us always act as for eternity. Be ours the faith 
that can anticipate those heavenly joys which 
excite our ardent hopes, and thence derive new 
resolution in our endeavours to attain them, and 
may it be ours at length to receive a bright 
reward, when faith shall be lost in sight, and hope 
swallowed up in enjoyment. 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



Deut. xxix. 29. 

" The secret things belong unto the Lord our God : but those 
things which are revealed belong unto us and unto our chil- 
dren for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." 

These words, drawn from one of the addresses of 
Moses to the Israelites, supply us with much 
important matter for reflection, and are well 
worthy to engage our serious thoughts, that we 
may exactly mark out the sentiment they convey, 
and apply it in such a manner as may be found 
profitable by all. 

We must recollect, in the first place, that there 
are many things about which our curiosity may 
be excited, which, from the nature of our powers, 
must necessarily remain secret to us whilst we 
continue in this introductory state; nay, many 
things which we can hardly expect in any state to 
acquire capacities for fully comprehending. There 
are even subjects upon which we should be ready 
to pronounce it important for us to be well-informed, 
upon which we find ourselves involved in a darkness 
which all our ingenuity and researches fail to dissi- 
pate. In how many instances is the course of Provi- 



164 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



dence different from what we should have prescribed, 
or what we can perceive to be wise and good ! How 
much is there in the common lot of humanity, in 
the history of the past affairs of our race, and in 
the existing circumstances of large portions of the 
human family, which we may strive in vain to 
bring into conformity with the rules which, in our 
opinion, must guide the Divine Governor, or to set 
in its proper place as part of a plan devised by 
Omniscience, and having its origin in infinite 
benevolence ! How much most desirable know- 
ledge is there which has hitherto proved beyond 
the reach of our most eager efforts, and how often 
do uncertain glimpses of seemingly inaccessible 
truths, seen like the forms of natural objects in a 
mist, which magnifies, confuses, and renders them 
imposing, provoke whilst they bafne our most 
earnest and laborious inquiries ! It is the lan- 
guage of scepticism and irreligion, that, because 
we cannot understand and explain all things, we 
should in reason believe nothing of the agency of 
an unseen power. It is the opposite language of 
many injudicious friends of religion, that we must 
believe whatever is offered to us by constituted 
religious authorities, without presuming to call it 
in question, or pretending to apply to it the 
powers of our own minds, which are altogether 
inadequate to such subjects. Between these 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



165 



extremes, each manifestly leading to most per- 
nicious consequences, and both almost equally 
repugnant to our sober reason, we must endeavour 
to find a secure and satisfactory resting place. 
The proofs by which we are surrounded, of the 
existence and government of an infinitely power- 
ful, wise, and good being, the Creator of all things, 
arising from what we do see and understand, are 
absolutely irresistible, and we surely know enough 
of the imperfection of our powers, the narrowness 
of our views, the shortness of our season for 
observation here, and the degree in which our 
attention is distracted from this more specula- 
tive subject by our wants and our pleasures, our 
follies, and, alas ! too, by our vices, to make 
large allowances for what we must not expect here 
to understand, and humbly to believe that there 
may be, and must be, the same perfections ex- 
erted in what we are unable to explain, which we 
perceive and adore in innumerable instances occur- 
ing to us every day, and surrounding us on every 
side ; nay, when we observe the advantages we 
derive from the mysteries of nature and Providence ; 
how necessary they are to teach us humility, re- 
signation, and piety ; to make this world a proper 
place of preparation for another, and to give 
vigorous exercise to all our faculties, affording us 
a boundless course for progressive improvement, — 



166 MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 

we cannot but acknowledge that our reason should 
acquiesce in its own disappointments, and that it 
is a lesson well becoming us to learn, that there 
are " secret things belonging unto God," of which we 
have no right to require, and no reason to hope, 
any explanation, but which nevertheless afford not 
the slightest warrant for unbelieving doubts, or 
impious murmurs. 

" Shall little, haughty ignorance pronounce 
His works unwise, of which the smallest part 
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind ? 
As if upon a full-proportioned dome, 
On swelling columns heaved, the pride of art ! 
A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads 
An inch around, with blind presumption bold, 
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole." 

Do we, then, seem to recommend any approach 
towards a blind and uninquiring submission to 
the dogmas which it may suit any human teachers 
of religion to impose, and which they would pass 
upon us as having a Divine origin ? Nothing can 
be further from my intention, or more abhorrent 
to my deepest convictions. Our reason was given 
us by God to be our guide, and if He have graciously 
seen fit in some things to assist its weakness, en- 
abling it to overcome obstacles which would other- 
wise have stopped or retarded its advancement, it 
was his purpose to assist, not to discard or enslave 
it ; and he has allowed us no means of safely dis- 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



167 



pensing with its services. In fact, even supposing 
truth obtained, it could be of no advantage to us, 
unless embraced intellectually and applied ration- 
ally ; and even if we have the unquestionable re- 
cords of revelation open before us, we cannot tell 
what they really teach — we cannot detect the mis- 
interpretations of ignorance, prejudice, and selfish 
interest, otherwise than by the use of our rational 
faculties; besides, although we should show the 
most absurd presumption in thinking it necessary 
that we should understand all the ways of Provi- 
dence, or hesitating to believe and apply what is 
plain and credible, on account of that which may, 
at present, be incomprehensible by us, in the 
works or ways of the infinite God, there is no 
boundary fixed within which we are commanded 
to limit our inquiries. There are no doctrines or 
subjects pointed out as being forbidden to our 
searching thoughts. Whatever real knowledge 
we can obtain, is the honourable and delightful 
reward of our exertions in its pursuit ; and if we 
make unavailing efforts, the lessons to be derived 
from these repulses, in our endeavours to extend 
the domains of human reason, are not uninstruc- 
tive. Only let us approach sacred subjects with a 
seriousness becoming their high interest, and a 
respect which what we certainly know upon them 
should command. Let us esteem it more import- 



168 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



ant to use well what has been freely given, or 
already securely acquired, than to attain to that 
knowledge which is still uncertain, or beyond our 
reach ; and, considering how much, notwithstand- 
ing any possible successes, must always surpass 
our powers, let us cherish feelings of humility 
becoming our nature. Then, no efforts made, by 
the use of means which he himself alone has put 
into our power, to extend our acquaintance with 
the works or plans of the Almighty, can be ac- 
counted blameable. There will be secrets enough 
always inscrutable by us; but whatever we are 
able, by examining, to find out, it is right and 
good for us to know. All truth will be confirmed 
and rendered more clear in its relations to other 
branches of knowledge or duty, by further exami- 
nation. Ultimately, at least, error only can be 
shaken ; and whilst we are disinterested, cautious, 
and diligent, we need never fear evil consequences 
from directing to any subject the best powers of 
our minds, or applying to any doctrines the tests 
which seem best calculated to try their purity and 
value. 

A secret or mystery is, by its very definition, 
that which remains unknown to us; and, surely, 
whatever there may be in the Divine counsels 
which remains concealed from us, it becomes such 
insignificant creatures as we are, humbly to ac- 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 169 

knowledge and contentedly to bear our ignorance, 
believing, that what is by ns incomprehensible, or 
apparently evil, is, nevertheless, really glorious and 
good ; but if we are so happy as, by any means, to 
attain to the knowledge of what before was hidden 
from us, it can no longer be a mystery. A doc- 
trine or truth, whether revealed or established by 
convincing arguments, cannot be a mystery. It 
is now given up as the dominion of our reason. 
It becomes now, not only allowable but right for 
us to examine and consider it in every point of 
view — to study both its evidence and its applica- 
tion, by every aid which we can bring to bear upon 
the subject ; and if it will not bear examination, 
we may be sure there is some mistake — it cannot 
be the truth we have been led to suppose it. It 
is vain to tell us that what is revealed may be true 
and essential, yet incomprehensible, for the only 
possible benefit to us of any doctrine, is its influ- 
ence on our minds and characters, which arises 
from our understanding it, and what we do not 
understand can do us no service — cannot, therefore, 
be essential to us. There may be truths, highly 
important and useful, which are not entirely within 
the scope of our comprehension ; but then, it will 
be found that the benefit arises from what we 
understand, and that the rest, though passing 
what the nature of our own powers allows us to 
Q 



170 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



have any knowledge of, by no means contradicts 
our conception of what may belong to an infinitely 
superior being. Thus, to take as an example the 
omnipresence of God — we can very well under- 
stand the truth that our thoughts, words, and 
actions, and those of all his creatures wheresoever 
situated, are all naked and fully known to him : 
and this, consequently, we can practically apply. 
We cannot understand what must be the essential 
nature of a being who is at once present in every 
place, but we can conceive that such an attribute 
may belong to the being by whom all creatures 
exist aud are supported, and that our own limita- 
tion to a single spot prevents the possibility of 
our knowing how he exists who is everywhere. 
There is mystery attending the truth, yet it is 
itself understood, sanctioned by reason, and per- 
ceived to have a relation to our conduct. But 
suppose a doctrine propounded, the very terms of 
which are incapable of any consistent explanation ; 
which either teaches nothing — that is, consists of a 
mere form of words, conveying no distinct ideas 
to the mind, or teaches a contradiction, which no 
natural evidence can confirm, and which can be 
established only on the degradation of the reason- 
ing faculty. As such a doctrine cannot be under- 
stood, it cannot be really believed; men may 
believe that such a form of words was commanded 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 171 

to be pronounced, and that its truth, in some 
sense, is not to be called in question; but the 
mind embraces no truth, and, therefore, no good 
influence is produced. There is, in fact, no reve- 
lation made, but that the use of certain prescribed 
words is essential — and there surely is no man, 
pretending to reason, who will not feel repugnance 
to believing that God would make such a revelation. 
Such a doctrine may be called a mystery, but the 
very name acknowledges its inutility. " The 
secret things belong unto God." Until they are 
explained, and rendered intelligible, they come 
not into use for us. We may repeat the pre- 
scribed words, but still they remain altogether 
ineffectual and uninteresting. One thing, how- 
ever, is no mystery. It is fully competent to us 
to inquire whether such a dogma as we have sup- 
posed ever was prescribed by Divine authority. 
This is a matter of reason and evidence, and the 
improbability of the supposition that God would 
impose upon us what we cannot understand or use, 
will justly have no small influence in inclining us 
to the negative. This supposed case illustrates 
that of all mysteries in religion. They may have 
charms for the credulous and feeble-minded ; they 
may even captivate men of great powers, by the 
sort of sacrifice they require, but they can be of no 
use as articles of faith; and the presumption is 
Q2 



172 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



always exceedingly strong against their being 
really founded on any Divine authority. In our 
text, secret things, or mysteries, are clearly opposed 
to those things which are revealed, so that what 
is revealed can no longer be a mystery. We are 
taught, that what we cannot know or explain — 
what remains a mystery, belonging to God, is to 
be treated by us with reverence on that account, 
and we are not to imagine we have a right to 
penetrate it, or to assume the liberty of condemn- 
ing what we do not understand. With these 
secret things we have little to do, and shall be 
called to no account respecting them — " but those 
things which are revealed belong unto us and 
unto our children for ever, that we may do all the 
words " of the Divine law. Hence, we see what 
it is, in religion, which should be our concern — 
that part which is comprehensible and practically 
applicable. 

W^hat God has given us faculties sufficient for 
establishing and perceiving, or what he has him- 
self so communicated that we can embrace it with 
our minds, can perceive its tendency, and follow it 
up in our practice, that it is, and that only which 
is for us, and should be handed down to our 
children ; in that our religion should be considered 
as consisting, and to the improvement of our 
acquaintance with it should our best thoughts be 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



173 



directed. Revelation means the making known 
what before was concealed : its very essence is to 
be without mystery, and where that word is intro- 
duced into it, we immediately suspect something 
wrong, some ignorant if not fraudulent perversion. 
Eevelation allies itself to reason and seeks its sup- 
port. It offers its doctrines as well as its evi- 
dences to be examined and tried by every fair 
application of the powers of the mind. It seeks no 
blind submission, no prostration of the under- 
standing, but an intellectual and therefore a living 
and active faith. The doctrines which belong to 
us and to our children for ever — to what do they 
belong ? certainly to our minds, to our under- 
standings as well as our affections, to our judg- 
ments which should approve, as well as to our 
hearts which should cherish them. 

We have only further to consider the great 
reason why the things which are revealed were 
given unto us ; " that we may do all the words of 
the law ;" that we may bring all that we believe 
into practice; that we may make every sacred 
truth contribute to purify our hearts, to check our 
vicious propensities, and restrain our unholy de- 
sires ; to bind us by stronger ties to our brethren, 
and excite us to greater exertions and sacrifices in 
their service ; to enliven our love to God, and 
increase our resignation to his appointments ; to 

Q3 



174 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



render us his faithful, confiding, and obedient 
servants ; and to make our sojourn in this world of 
trial an effectual preparation for our admission 
into a heavenly state of glory and felicity. Such 
are the fruits by which we are to recognize a 
genuine faith, and without which we cannot be- 
lieve it to exist. Where they are not found in 
some considerable quantity, we are not to value 
the tree for a vain outward resemblance to that 
which bears the desired produce. What availeth 
even truth, if it be not so believed, reflected upon, 
and pursued into its consequences, as to produce 
genuine influences on the heart and life ? And if 
there be truth enough to produce these influences 
(for it is only truth which produces what is good), 
who are we that we should despise it on account 
of any errors with which it may, in our opinion, 
be united ? Our business is to profit ourselves by 
the truths of religion, and to make them as profit- 
able as we can to others; and to this end we 
should ever bear in mind the purpose for which 
they were given, not merely or chiefly to be be- 
lieved, but to be brought into practice . We are 
not afraid of their candid and serious discussion, 
because what is true must be strengthened and 
purified from any remains of error, by the fair and 
just application of reason in its examination ; and 
what is revealed is given to us and to our children, 



MYSTERY IN RELIGION. 



175 



that we may examine and consider in order to 
apply it ; but we will never forget that the essen- 
tial part is the practical part ; that for the sake of 
this our religion was given; that on account of 
this it is worth examining, and that in reference 
to this only our attainments will finally be tried. 
"The secret things belong unto God." There 
are many things which it concerns us not to know; 
of which it is good for us here to be ignorant ; 
and however great may be the triumphs of reason 
and philosophy, there must still always be a 
boundary of mystery to exercise the faith and 
humility of our weak and dependent race. It is 
folly in us to require any more knowledge than 
we possess as the condition of our religious faith. 
Much of ignorance and doubt belongs to our 
nature, and we have the clearest and most positive 
proofs of all that it is really most needful for us to 
know. Let us then, even whilst we cautiously and 
humbly inquire and speculate on interesting but 
difficult subjects, be content with the imperfection 
of our views, and rest our minds on the distinct 
parts of the prospect. " The secret things belong 
to God," and cannot be essential to us. On those 
which are revealed we may expatiate with con- 
stant pleasure and improvement, applying our- 
selves to understand all their bearings, that we 
may faithfully transmit and fully obey them. 



PAUL'S PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 



Acts xxiv. 25. 

" And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judg- 
ment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for 
this time ; when I have a convenient season, I will call for 
thee." 

Felix was the procurator or governor of Judea, 
under the Roman emperor Claudius. He was a 
freed-man, or one who had been a slave, but had ' 
received his freedom by his master's favour. He 
had been the property of the mother of Claudius, 
and was retained in the service of this emperor, in 
whose favour his brother Pallas stood very high. 
He is described by the historian Tacitus as having 
exercised his power with all manner of cruelty and 
lust, — and we learn from Josephus that he seduced 
his wife Drusilla (whom he probably married 
during Paul's imprisonment, perhaps immediately 
previous to the interview described in the text) to 
desert her first husband. Notwithstanding his 
attempt to conciliate the favour of the Jews when 
leaving them, by the injustice of suffering Paul, 
whom he knew to be guilty of no crime, to remain 
a prisoner, his government had been so hateful, 
that he was soon after his recal followed to Rome 



178 FAULTS PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 

by many leading J ews, by whom he was accused 
before Nero, who by this time had succeeded to 
the empire, and would probably have suffered the 
reward of his crimes, had it not been for the pow- 
erful interference of his brother Pallas, who still 
retained his influence at the imperial court. From 
this sketch of his history we see how much cause 
Felix had to tremble, when he heard the apostle 
discourse concerning righteousness, temperance, and 
judgment to come. Let us imagine this corrupt 
and wicked man, proud of his power and thought- 
less in hardened depravity, in order to satisfy a 
vain curiosity which had been excited during the 
trial, or to gratify his bride Brasilia, who as a 
Jewess might feel some interest in the contests of 
Jewish sects, calling the holy apostle to speak 
before him in private concerning the faith of 
Christ. He expected probably to be entertained 
with speculations applied to no practical purpose, 
and theoretic discussions like those of the Greek 
philosophers, on the doctrine of a future state, 
for maintaining which Paul had on his trial stated 
that he was persecuted. He sought amusement 
from his prisoner, but he little anticipated the 
freedom of even implied reproof. What must have 
been his astonishment when the eloquent advo- 
cate of our heavenly religion, armed with the 
boldness which truth inspires, and regardless of 



PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 179 



his own dependent situation, set before him the 
great moral and practical truths of the Gospel, in 
such a powerful and convincing manner as forced 
upon his troubled memory the recollection of his 
own crimes, and made him for the first time fully 
feel their misery, and dread their consequences. 
The imprisoned apostle preaches, and the powerful 
wicked man trembles at the word of one whose life 
is at his disposal ; shrinks from the eye of one 
whom his nod appoints for freedom or for bondage. 
Such is the power of virtue and of truth; the 
seared conscience is restored to momentary feel- 
ing ; it is aroused for an instant from a long and 
deep sleep, and almost he was persuaded to repent 
of his sins, and embrace that holy faith whose 
new creating power might, even for him, have 
reformed the heart and changed the character. 
Could he even then have listened with patience, 
whilst he trembled under the first impressions of 
Divine truth ; could he have suffered his mind 
then to dwell on the reasoning which he had 
heard, and resisted the suggestions of pride and 
worldly-mindedness, he might have been turned 
from his evil course, and have found peace, where 
the humble and sincere penitent may always find 
it, at the feet of the blessed Jesus. But such was 
not his happy lot. We are most seriously warned 
in various parts of Scripture, against the danger 



180 PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 

of indulging vicious habits, and the extreme 
difficulty of long-deferred repentance; and the 
case of this unhappy man, who was convinced, and 
trembled, yet could not change, should be con- 
sidered by us as a monitory example. ""Who- 
soever committeth sin is the slave of sin." " Can 
the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his 
spots ? then may ye also do good that are accus- 
tomed to do evil." Too much humbled and 
shamed to treat his prisoner with indignity, and 
perhaps deceiving himself with the hope of yet 
profiting by his advice, though he had not firm- 
ness immediately to apply it, Felix dismissed the 
apostle from his presence : " Go thy way for this 
time; when I have a convenient season, I will 
send for thee." Often, again, he heard him, and 
could not help hearing him with interest ; but the 
decisive moment was past — sin had triumphed, 
the heart was irrecoverably hardened, and he could 
even seek the presence of the teacher of righteous- 
ness, in the hope of being bribed to do him justice. 
Disappointed in this hope, he descended to the 
meanness of gratifying the hatred of the Jews, by 
leaving the apostle a prisoner for his successor, 
and vainly sought, by this new crime, to stifle the 
accusing cry, with which he doubted not an in- 
jured people would follow him to the presence of 
his sovereign. 



PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 181 

In reflecting on Paul's preaching before Felix, we 
cannot but be struck with the mighty power which 
pure principles, uttered with earnest sincerity, are 
capable of exercising over even the most abandoned 
characters — checking, for a moment, their career of 
crime, commanding involuntary respect, and even ex- 
citing a feeling, however transient, of horror at their 
own wickedness; at the same time, this wretched go- 
vernor awfully proves that men may be too far gone 
in vice to be capable of being recalled by the most 
powerful means, and put us upon our guard against 
the dangerous self-delusion of delaying to a more 
favourable season, which will never arrive, the 
repentance of any evil or the acquisition of any 
good which we know to be needful for us. Our 
daily strengthening habits soon acquire a force 
which is beyond the power of ordinary motives 
to break, and it is ridiculous for us to calculate on 
future repentance, if even now we are not suffi- 
ciently sensible of its necessity to attempt it imme- 
diately. How rare are the instances in which the 
hardened and long practised sinner is brought to 
a proper sense of his situation, and impressed with 
that godly sorrow which leads to amendment and 
newness of life ! With what force and novelty 
must the arguments strike his mind, which can 
change the character of his thoughts, break through 
established associations, and reverse old practices ! 

R 



182 Paul's preaching before felix. 

It is seldom that any thing less than severe suf- 
fering can effect such a change, and then the 
profession extorted by fear cannot be depended 
upon, unless proved to be sincere by the subse- 
quent conduct, so that a death-bed repentance 
cannot afford any reasonable and solid ground for 
confidence. It is easy enough in the hour of suf- 
fering and in the approach of death, to extort 
from the sinner a confession of faith, and he will 
eagerly seize on the hope he may be encouraged 
to build upon it ; but this is not Christian con- 
version, and it cannot, on Gospel principles, or 
the authority of Scripture, be considered as effec- 
tual or advantageous. If even the great apostle 
failed in his benevolent efforts to convert a har- 
dened and abandoned sinner, those who endeavour 
to tread in his steps, but at a very humble dis- 
tance, need not wonder that their labours are often 
apparently in vain, and instead of weakly de- 
siring the power to alter the constitution of man, 
they will humbly pursue their appointed path, 
happy if sometimes they have the opportunity of 
recalling those who have not yet strayed too far 
from the right path — if they can encourage and 
assist the well-disposed, strengthen the tempted, 
and train up the young in those principles which 
will secure them from the need of a future bitter 
repentance. It is a sort of quackery in religion, 



Paul's preaching before felix. 183 

which can be productive of no good, though it 
may often occasion much serious mischief, to offer 
a certain cure in cases which the wisest and the 
best — the true physicians of the soul — have consi- 
dered as beyond their reach, and which rarely 
admit of any benefit from rational and well-founded 
methods of treatment. There are those who will 
offer salvation as a thing easily attainable to the 
most abandoned sinners, and will even go so far 
as to assert, that the blacker their crimes, the 
fitter they are to come to Christ, to be cleansed by 
him. It may almost serve to expose the imposture, 
that such persons usually represent their own spe- 
cific as the only efficacious one, and found the 
infallible merit of the faith they teach, in the con- 
demnation of all their brethren. 

But, though I esteem it necessary to reprehend 
prevailing modern opinions and practice on the 
subject of conversion, I would not unnecessarily 
magnify the difficulty which attends the reclaiming 
of the most hardened sinner. Undoubtedly, there 
may have been, nay, there must have been, many as 
bad, or even worse, than Felix, who were converted 
by the preaching of our Lord himself, and of the 
apostles, and first teachers of the Gospel, and 
who were completely brought under the influence 
of the holy truths they embraced. This is ration- 
ally accounted for from the consideration, that 
r2 



184 PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 

such persons had previously had no opportunities 
of acquiring just principles of religion ; and that 
the truths they received coming fresh into their 
minds, effected a complete change in the system of 
their feelings and motives, which can hardly be sup- 
posed in those who have been brought up Chris- 
tians, and have neglected what they had heard and 
known : to this may be added, the effect of miracu- 
lous powers, and the extraordinary energy belonging 
to a newly-introduced and persecuted system. Still 
too, by taking advantage of the events of Provi- 
dence, by forcible representations of the opposite 
effects of different courses of conduct, by pow- 
erful appeals to the better feelings of our nature, 
and to a well-founded fear of Divine wrath 
against obstinate guilt, and by presenting striking 
views of corrupted or misunderstood truths, deep 
and lasting impressions may be made on sinners, 
and Christian benevolence should never suffer us 
to despair of bringing back a lost brother. Only 
it is a truth which requires serious consideration, 
that conversion is not so easy a thing as it is often- 
times made to appear, that there are notions 
widely prevalent which lead to much and most 
injurious deception respecting it, and that there 
are many circumstances which can make even 
apostolic eloquence vain on a hardened sinner. 
But let us pass from these reflections to another 



Paul's preaching before felix. 185 



view of our text, which is highly interesting and 
important, namely, as it shows the true nature 
of the Christian religion, and the proper mode of 
advancing it. Paul "reasoned" with Felix "of 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." 
We cannot but be struck with the very wide dif- 
ference that there is between this, and the method 
adopted by those modern teachers, who are es- 
teemed, or who wish to be esteemed, the most 
successful and the most evangelical. Instead of 
employing reason as the means of conviction, their 
general practice is to condemn its use, and to pro- 
mote a tumult of the passions, which shall silence 
its voice. Reasoning on religious subjects they 
proscribe as cold and useless, and it is in general 
in defiance of the judgment that they endeavour 
to awaken enthusiasm or to impose implicit faith. 
And with respect to the subjects of their preaching, 
the first place is certainly by no means given to 
those apostolic ones of " righteousness, temperance, 
and judgment to come;" but on the contrary, 
these are too often passed in comparative neglect, 
or treated as insignificant, whilst the prominent 
position is occupied by the necessity of a peculiar 
faith, which can of itself supply all deficiencies, 
but without which righteousness, and temperance, 
and serious regard to future judgment, are odious 
in the sight of God, and partake of the nature of 
r 3 



186 PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 

sin. The modern self-called evangelical preacher, 
instead of reasoning with the sinner on the topics 
noticed in our text, examines into his creed, 
requires his undoubting belief of incomprehensible, 
not to say absurd doctrines, and exhorts him to rely 
on the merits of a Saviour, instead of applying the 
precepts and examples of his great deliverer from the 
power of sin, in the regulation of his own conduct. 
Such a preacher probably builds his doctrines more 
especially on the writings — I should say on his inter- 
pretation of the writings ; for that they are diffe- 
rently understood by equally honest and not less 
competent judges, is but one of the facts of the case 
— of the very apostle of whom we are speaking. It 
may be asked him whether he compares the writings 
with the conduct of Paul, or whether he finds a con- 
sistency between the manner in which " the pri- 
soner of the Lord " is reported to have preached to 
the wicked governor of J udea, and the doctrine re- 
specting the remedy of sin, which he advances as 
found in the same person's letters to his converts. 

If there be such consistency, it is not very 
obvious to common eyes; it is at least certain 
that the account we have of Paul's address to the 
sinner is very unlike the attempts at conversion 
by those who imagine that they most closely fol- 
low his doctrine in the present day. 

As the apostle was expressly sent for to Felix 



PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 187 

to discourse concerning the faith of Christ, it is no 
more than a just conclusion that his discourse 
contained the essentials of Christianity ; yet there 
can be no doubt but that Luke has given us a 
faithful abstract of it, and he plainly states that 
its subjects were "righteousness, temperance, and 
judgment to coine, - " — words which include all our 
personal and social duties, as well as the grand 
sanction by which Christianity enforces our atten- 
tion to them. Here then we have the substance 
of religion, the true and only means of securing 
the Divine favour, and the refutation of all other 
and deceitful pretences on the subject. The reli- 
gion of Jesus we are assured consists in a due 
sense of our being in the presence and power of 
God, and having all to be judged by him according 
to our actions, and in a regard to the relative and 
individual virtues which he prescribes, in treating 
our fellow creatures with justice, kindness and 
charity, in controlling our own passions, and so 
constantly regulating them by reason and piety, 
as to live in sobriety, chastity, and temperance all 
our appointed time. Vain and worthless is the 
religion which does not lead to these results ; 
unsound are the doctrines which do not promote 
them, and empty is the show of piety which is not 
connected with them. It is only by preaching 
" of righteousness, and temperance, and judgment 
to come," that the sinner can be really converted 



188 PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 

and the good man strengthened. It is only by a 
practical application of them that we can adorn 
the doctrine of our Saviour, and become, amidst 
our frailty, fit subjects for that Divine mercy which 
is promised to those " who by patient continuance 
in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immor- 
tality." Endeavour, my fellow Christians, to ac- 
quire those pure, holy, and sublime views, which, 
as they were unfolded by the great apostle, made 
Felix tremble, and awakened fear and remorse in 
his hardened mind. Seek them in the discourses 
and actions of your Master and his chosen fol- 
lowers. Let your faith in Christ lead you to a 
Christian life, and you will have the best of all 
proofs of its being what it ought to be, and need 
feel no alarm for its alleged deficiencies. Learn 
your duty and practise it, and you may be sure 
you will want no conversion. You cannot under- 
stand every thing in the writings of the New 
Testament, but take those plain descriptions of 
the nature and purpose of the Gospel which you 
cannot misunderstand ; let them be your guides, 
and admit not the possibility of that being neces- 
sary which is doubtful or incomprehensible. Think 
well on righteousness, temperance, and judgment to 
come, and steadily apply your convictions, and 
you cannot but attain to peace and joy here, and 
eternal blessedness in a better state. 

In conclusion, let me once again warn you, my 



PAUl/s PREACHING BEFORE FELIX. 189 



brethren, against the fatal error of putting off to a 
more convenient season the performance of your 
duties, or the reformation of your faults. Felix 
trembled-, his conscience was roused, his heart 
was softened, his conduct began to appear to him 
in its true light, and he might have been brought 
to effectual repentance, but he could not bear 
immediately to give up his long-cherished sins ; he 
must think of it again ; he would further hear the 
apostle, but it must be at a more convenient season. 
The important hour was gone by, and instead of 
leading to his conversion, his intercourse with the 
apostle only involved him in further criminality. 
You will all find it the same if you imitate his 
conduct. The season will never come when you 
can sacrifice your vices without pain, and every 
delay will lessen your disposition to attend to 
them. Now then listen to the voice of conscience 
and the exhortations of religion; call to mind 
the all-powerful motives to goodness which the 
Gospel presents ; consider its awful warnings, and 
tremble at its denunciations against obstinate, un- 
repented sin. Use all the means of grace for 
strengthening the influence of religion, and begin 
this day to conquer your sins ; " for now is the 
accepted time ; now is the day of salvation." 



THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE FOR A 
LIFE TO COME. 



John xiv. 19. 

" Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye see 
me : because I live, ye shall live also." 

It can admit of no doubt, that the time here spoken 
of by our Lord, when the world should see him no 
more, is after his death ; and if it be inquired how 
he could assert that his disciples should then con- 
tinue to see him, a little attention to the connec- 
tion of his words, and to the similar expressions 
which he employs where his meaning cannot be 
doubtful, will enable us to reply with great confi- 
dence, that the communications they received from 
him after his ascension, and the extraordinary 
gifts which he was then enabled to bestow upon 
them according to his promise, are thus described 
in the figurative language of his discourse. In 
answer to a question put to him by one of the 
apostles, " Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest 
thyself to us, and not unto the world ? 99 he says, 
" If a man love me he will keep my words, and my 
father will love him, and we will come unto him, 



192 



THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 



and make our abode with him;" i.e. no doubt, in 
the gifts of the spirit instructing, directing, and 
assisting him. And again : " A little while, and 
ye shall not see me ;" i. e. when I die — " again, 
a little while, and ye shall see me," (in the gifts 
of the spirit,) " because I go to the Father." 
"Ye now have sorrow, but I will see you again, 
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man 
can take from you." In all these passages our 
Lord plainly speaks of coming to, and being seen 
by, his disciples in the gifts of the spirit, and the 
intercourse he held with them after his ascension ; 
they therefore lead us to the true and satisfactory 
explanation of our text. " The world shall see 
me no more, but ye shall see me : because I live, 
ye shall live also." My resurrection, and your 
certain knowledge of my living in another state, 
shall be to you the proof and assurance of your 
own future and immortal existence. Such was 
our Lord's reasoning for the encouragement and 
consolation of his faithful friends. He assures 
them that after his removal from this world, they 
should have such certain and repeated proofs of 
his continued existence, they should hold such 
direct intercourse with him, and have such un- 
questionable sensible signs of his affording them 
the promised aids in their labours and trials, that 
they might be said again to see him, and have 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



193 



him with them; and he holds out to them his con- 
tinued existence after death in an unseen state, as 
a proof and example of their own, which should 
remove all doubt from their minds, inspire them 
with the strongest confidence, and afford them 
abundant support and consolation amidst the diffi- 
culties and sufferings which they would be called 
upon to endure. 

I am led by the consideration of the text, as 
I have now explained it, to offer to you on the 
present occasion a few reflections on the sim- 
plicity of the Gospel evidence for a future state, 
and to attempt directing your attention to the 
circumstances in which its importance principally 
consists. 

It is my first observation, that the evidence 
afforded us by the Gospel on this most interesting 
of all subjects, consists almost entirely in fact. 
Jesus died and rose again. He left this world, 
and after his departure he manifested himself to 
his disciples, and fulfilled promises which he had 
made to them whilst he was with them. Our 
Lord did not, as it seems to me, remarkably dis- 
tinguish himself as a preacher of the doctrine of a 
future state. It is not introduced in many of his 
discourses to the people, and it is very rarely that 
we find him arguing in its defence ; indeed, the 
only instance of this kind which I can recollect, 
s 



194 



THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 



is where lie reasons from God being called the 
God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, 
because he is not a God of the dead but of the 
living — an argument which admirably served his 
immediate purpose of silencing the Saddueees, and 
which might, when viewed in the proper light, 
have considerable weight with reflecting persons, 
but which by no means appears to us the strongest 
which could have been brought forward, or the 
one which would have been selected, at least 
alone, had it been the intention of Jesus to rest 
the determination of the question on abstract rea- 
soning. If, as I am fully persuaded, the 25th 
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew be wrongly 
applied to a day of general judgment in another 
state, our Lord's own words furnish us with no 
description of any thing in our future condition ; 
for in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, 
he merely employed prevailing Jewish opinions 
for the scenery and incidents of a story, the doc- 
trine or moral of which is all contained in the few 
last words. 

The doctrine of another life was speculatively 
maintained by the Pharisees, and by most of the 
learned Jews after the Babylonish captivity, but 
their notions concerning it were very confused and 
erroneous, and we may well conjecture that the 
arguments by which they supported it, of which we 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



195 



know nothing, were inconclusive and unsatisfac- 
tory. Our Lord unobtrusively joined himself to 
the believers in the general truth ; but it does not 
seem to have been among the objects of his personal 
ministry, because it could not have been usefully 
effected by such means, to diffuse it among the 
people, and he seems to have announced it on his 
own authority, in comparatively few discourses, 
and those chiefly addressed to his chosen disciples 
and immediate friends; as that recorded in the 
sixth chapter of John, that at the grave of Lazarus, 
and in the impressive words of our text, taken 
from his farewell conversation with his apostles. 
There is much more on this subject in the Gospel 
of John, which contains most of the private con- 
versations of Jesus, than in the writings of any 
other of the evangelists, though it is possible that 
several passages in that Gospel may be wrongly 
applied to it. 

If Jesus had not, before his death, announced 
the doctrine of a future retributory scene, with 
sufficient plainness, to those who were to be the 
teachers and messengers of his religion, the evi- 
dence arising from his resurrection and ascension, 
although in itself satisfactory, would have been 
too much left to be discovered and applied by 
human reason to have been very useful : but if we 
only know that he made the doctrine of a future 
s 2 



196 THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 

existence a part of his instructions to his followers, 
and especially that he appealed, for its fullest 
proof, to the example which would be afforded in 
himself, we cannot easily overlook or misapply 
the evidence, which is presented to us in the 
fullest, plainest, and most forcible manner pos- 
sible. 

After our Saviour's ascension, the very circum- 
stance of the intercourse they held with the unseen 
state, directed the minds of the disciples so strongly 
to it, and their hopes were so ardently fixed upon 
it, amidst the labours and persecutions they were 
enduring, as the scene of rest and reward, that 
the mention of it could not fail continually to 
occur in their writings, and the fact of the resur- 
rection, so vastly important, both with relation to 
the general truth of their religion, and to this 
grand doctrine in particular, is accordingly brought 
before the view in every possible manner. There 
may, however, be differences of opinion respecting 
the right mode of considering various passages in 
the epistles, relating to the future state, and re- 
specting the inferences which ought to be drawn 
from them ; so that, whilst we observe with satis- 
faction, how the grand and all-important general 
truth impressed the apostles and first disciples; 
whilst we occasionally adopt, with triumphant feel- 
ing, their language as the expression of our own 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



197 



faith, and use every endeavour to understand their 
ideas, and trace them to their sources, we shall do 
well to take, as the solid ground-work of our con- 
viction, not the assertions or reasonings of any 
man, even of those who were favoured with imme- 
diate and extraordinary communications, but the 
plain evidence of facts, which seems hardly capable 
of misapprehension or perversion. It is on this 
account that I judge it so peculiarly important 
that we should, all of us, be enabled to appreciate 
the full value of this evidence of fact, in favour of 
the Christian doctrine of a future life, which will, 
I doubt not, be found, on examination, the most 
decisive that could possibly be afforded, so that it 
is little to say of it, that it is amply sufficient to 
satisfy any reasonable being. 

There is yet another view, in which the nature 
of the evidence, as being chiefly that of fact, 
deserves our particular attention. It is well 
known, that very different opinions respecting the 
state of the dead have actually been derived, by 
Christians, from the language of Scripture, and 
this language, perhaps, hardly could have been so 
clear as not to have become ambiguous from the 
lapse of time, and the changes of circumstances. 
Some maintain, that the soul remains, from death 
till the general resurrection, in an intermediate state 
of conscious existence ; others are fully persuaded 
s 3 



198 THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 

that the human being remains unconscious in 
death, till roused from its sleep by the general call 
of the last day ; and there are some who deny that 
the doctrine of a general judgment is fairly drawn 
from Scripture, properly interpreted, and believe 
that each individual passes, on death, into the state 
of happiness or suffering allotted to him, according 
as his conduct has deserved. All of these opinions 
profess to be derived from the language of the New 
Testament, and there is not one of them which has 
not been adopted by learned, able, and candid 
expositors ; nor is it by any means easy to come to 
a satisfactory decision amongst them : yet do the 
difference and the doubt by no means affect, as 
might at first be apprehended, the certainty of the 
doctrine of a future life, because this certainty 
rests upon no language which is liable to be mis- 
understood, but upon facts which are established 
by the best possible evidence, and which, if once 
admitted, leave no doubt upon the subject. How- 
ever, therefore, we may differ one from another, 
concerning the precise period and mode of our 
admission to that existence which is to follow 
death, we must all concur respecting its reality, 
and ought to agree in endeavouring, more and 
more, to apply our faith to practical use, and 
to increase its influence over our conduct and 
feelings. 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



199 



Our time will not allow me, on the present oc- 
casion, to enter upon the evidence of the facts, 
that Jesus died upon the cross, and upon the third 
day rose again from the dead. It is much to be de- 
sired that we should all of us believe these things, 
not in consequence merely of the influence of edu- 
cation and prejudice, but in consequence of having 
impartially examined the subject, and formed a 
just estimate of the force of the proofs afforded. 
My present object is rather to point out in what 
manner these facts should be regarded by us, as 
proofs of our own future existence, and to place 
for you in the light which appears to me most 
striking, the certainty and clearness of the con- 
clusion. 

Before his death, Jesus, whilst he foretold that 
event, promised his disciples miraculous guidance, 
instruction, and assistance, in the execution of 
their important mission. Whilst present with 
them, he communicated to them limited powers ; 
but he told them that " it was expedient for them 
that he should go away/' because it was only 
when he should have ascended to the Father, that 
he would be enabled to afford them all the aids 
which they required. — " If I go not away, the Com- 
forter" (better the Instructor) "will not come unto 
you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." 

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead, in 



200 THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 

itself alone did no more than had been done by 
the raising of Lazarus, the widow's son, and the 
daughter of Jairns. It was a practical illustration 
of the power to restore life of the being who gave 
and who supports it, a power which could only be 
doubted because we do not see it exercised. Had 
he, like those whom his word recalled to life, con- 
tinued subject to the power of death, the grand 
object would not have been answered. But he 
rose from the grave immortal, having for ever 
vanquished the power of death, and after having 
shown himself alive by many infallible proofs, 
ascended to his father and his God, prepared to 
enter without further change on another state of 
existence. 

How often has it been the earnest wish of those 
whose minds have been agitated by doubt re- 
specting futurity, that some departed friend might 
be permitted again to revisit this world, to remove 
their uncertainty and establish their faith ! How 
often even have those who cherish a firm belief in 
the glorious doctrine of the Gospel, felt this 
natural wish arising in their minds, especially in 
moments of bereavement and sorrow ! Now what 
a wise Providence does not see fit to grant to 
individuals was afforded to the first disciples of 
Christ, and through them to Christians in every 
age, and forms a very important part of the 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



201 



evidence which, we are now considering. We have 
noticed the promises made by our Lord before his 
death, of procuring for them certain gifts, and 
being present with them in certain influences and 
manifestations. 

The fulfilment of these promises was the best 
possible proof of his actual existence in another 
state. It was a proof liable to no objection. A 
few individuals were not deceived through enthu- 
siasm, for it was extended to the whole body of 
the disciples. The workings of imagination were 
not mistaken for extraordinary influences, for 
they were continued for years, and were shown by 
outward signs which were witnessed and examined 
by enemies as well as friends. And is there one 
thing mo)^ which we desire that the evidence may 
be perfect ? Do we wish to know the effect pro- 
duced on the minds of those who received such 
extraordinary proof ? To observe what signs they 
gave of believing in that world beyond the grave, 
with which they held such peculiar intercourse ? 
Here also we are fully satisfied. So zealous were 
they in the service of their exalted Lord; so com- 
pletely were their minds occupied by the glories of 
that heavenly rest to which they looked with 
undoubting confidence, that we find them sacri- 
ficing every worldly good, enduring and even 
welcoming every suffering; counting themselves 



202 THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 

happy that they were found worthy to suffer for 
the sake of their religion, and whilst they pro- 
moted it with unwearied activity, thinking its 
promised rewards an abundant compensation for 
every worldly loss and affliction. Are these then 
indeed the same men of whose timidity, distrust, 
contests for power and desire of vengeance against 
those who would not receive them, we read before 
their Master's death, when they were still, not- 
withstanding all his instructions, looking forward 
to a temporal kingdom and anticipating the pos- 
session of worldly power and greatness, as the 
rewards of their adherence to him whom they 
acknowledged as the Messiah that was to come ? 
What can be more striking than the contrast 
between their conduct and state of mind then, 
and after his ascension, when they had received 
the promised gifts of the spirit? And to what 
should we attribute the change, but to the im- 
pression made upon their minds by the very 
evidence we are now examining, which completely 
turned their views and expectations from a tem- 
poral to a heavenly and eternal kingdom ? 

So strong are the natural arguments in favour 
of a future state, from the character and per- 
fections of God, and the nature of the human 
mind, that they cannot but influence the philo- 
sophic thinker ; but it must be acknowledged that 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



203 



they are not absolutely convincing, partly perhaps 
because it is a subject of such awful interest that 
we require the fullest evidence, more especially as 
the season of affliction, when belief is most useful 
and necessary to us, is naturally most of all the 
season of doubt. But what can we imagine, or 
wish for, more clear than the simple facts set 
before us in the Gospel ? 

The best reasonings would affect different minds 
differently, and the most intelligible would be too 
refined for universal influence ; but facts afford 
an evidence clear, simple, and irresistible, which 
all can appreciate, and which equally satisfies the 
wise and the ignorant. 

A man as to his nature in all things like unto 
his brethren, only exalted above them by the 
proofs he afforded of immediate intercourse with 
God, and of possessing power from him, professing 
to believe in a future state, and teaching it to his 
friends and disciples as a most important doctrine, 
predicts his own resurrection from the grave, and 
promises after leaving this world to afford mani- 
fest proofs to them of his existence in another 
state, and even to hold such intercourse with them 
as th.ey could not mistake. He accomplishes his 
predictions and fulfils his promises. The character 
of his disciples in consequence changes, and their 
entire disregard and willing sacrifice of all earthly 



204 THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE 

good, proves their immoveable conviction that they 
should live again in a better and happier state, 
where they should be abundantly rewarded for 
their labours and their sufferings. 

I can find no way of considering this evidence 
which should not strengthen our conviction, and 
with such evidence I can think of nothing more 
as wanting. We may differ in various particulars 
respecting the interpretation of expressions used 
by the apostles respecting this future state ; nay, 
we might suppose ourselves altogether deprived 
of their writings. Yet whilst we retain the histo- 
rical books of the New Testament, and pay any 
regard to the well-established rules of evidence, 
our certainty respecting the great doctrine of the 
Gospel must remain unchanged. We must rejoice 
in the immoveable conviction that " because J esus 
our Lord was dead and now liveth, so we shall 
live also." 

Such being the essential and intimate con- 
nection between our hope of immortality, and the 
resurrection of our Saviour, can we ever think of 
that event without feelings of joy and triumph in 
the high destiny which the merciful goodness of 
God has appointed for our race ; of lively grati- 
tude to the great Source of all good, for that which 
is the crowning gift of all his blessings here, with 
which, trusting to his mercy, death ceases to be 



FOR A LIFE TO COME. 



205 



terrible to us, and delightful hopes enliveu the 
pleasures and sooth the sorrows of our pilgrimage ; 
and of warm affection for our elder brother, our 
leader to immortal life, who has achieved the 
victory over death, and has been exalted to God's 
right hand in heaven, that by his living we may 
assuredly know that we are to live also? And 
finally, my brethren, having this hope, let us ever 
consider u what manner of persons we ought to be 
in all holy conversation and godliness." Let us 
live under a constant expectation of, and in a 
constant preparation for, a day of retribution. Let 
our conduct prove that we desire for ourselves, 
and for our brethren, something better than time 
and sense alone can afford; let us learn, so long 
as we humbly desire and endeavour to serve God, 
to contemplate the appointed end of our earthly 
existence with cheerfulness and satisfaction, as the 
period of our admission, through the mercy of our 
Father, to the better things which are at his right 
hand ; and amidst the pains, disappointments, and 
bereavements of our chequered lives, let the con- 
viction of the wisdom with which our trials are 
appointed, and our firm faith in their blissful end, 
render us resigned and even happy. 

Thus our whole lives will manifest our faith, 
a faith which is worthless unless it be seen in our 
lives, that as Jesus our Lord liveth we shall live 

T 



206 THE CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE, ETC. 

also, and we shall be in some degree fitted, when 
called from the present scene, to join his faithful 
followers in the assembly of the just made perfect 
in heaven. 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



Romans vi. 4. 

'* That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory 
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of 
life." 

In the passage from which these words are taken, 
the apostle guards against the possibility of his 
previous doctrine being perverted to the sanction 
of sin, and proceeds to show its efficacy for pro- 
ducing holiness and virtue. " Do ye not consider, 
that as many of us as have been baptized into 
Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death ? " 
All who have, by baptism, made profession of 
faith in Christ, have done so with a particular 
reference to his death, and the doctrine which was 
established by it. " We are, therefore, buried 
with him by baptism unto death." Immersion in 
the water used in baptism may be taken as a figu- 
rative representation of being dead and buried — it 
shows, that those who become Christians must 
give up all connection with their previous state, 
that is, the state of ignorance, idolatry, and vice, 
in which the gentile converts at Rome had lived, 
T % 



208 



NEWNESS OF LIEE. 



before they were brought to receive the Gospel; 
must be extinct with respect to it, as Christ was 
to the world, when he expired on the cross and 
lay in the grave — " that as Christ was raised from 
the dead by the glory of the Father, we also may 
walk in newness of life," — that as Christ, by a 
glorious display of divine power, was raised to a 
new and nobler state of existence, they also, look- 
ing forward, according to his promise, to a similar 
change for themselves, and brought by him to a 
knowledge of what God requires, should, as his 
disciples, lead a new kind of life, conforming their 
conduct and conversation to the state into which 
they were privileged to enter. " For if we have," 
in our baptism, " conformed to the resemblance 
of his death, we should also conform to the re- 
semblance of his resurrection," by the new and 
better life which we lead — " considering this, that 
our old man " — the expression by which the apostle 
designates the habits and principles of the un- 
converted gentile state — " has been crucified with 
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
we might no longer be in slavery to sin : for he 
who is dead is free from sin," — as the slave by death 
is freed from his master, so the old man being 
dead, sin can no longer claim authority over us. 
<e And if we be dead with Christ," — if our baptism 
is a figurative conformity to his death, and termi- 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



209 



nation of our former ignorant and corrupt state — 
"we believe that we should also live with him." 
As he is raised to a new life, we also should enter 
on a new course of conduct, conformable to the 
principles and expectations which we have received 
from him — "knowing that Christ being raised 
from the dead, dieth no more — death hath no more 
dominion over him (for when he died, he died 
unto sin once 33 — by that death he entirely termi- 
nated his connection with a sinful and suffering 
state, — " but now he liveth, he liveth unto God," 
— being raised, by the power of God, to a new life, 
which is eternal, that life is dedicated to the glory 
of God); — " so, likewise, do ye reckon yourselves to 
be dead unto sin," — entirely separated from the 
evil practices of your heathen state — "but alive 
unto God in Christ Jesus," — living to the service 
and glory of God, as taught by Christ, and in •ex- 
pectation of that life in heaven to which he is gone 
as your forerunner. 

Here the apostle abandons the figure of a new 
life, to pursue that of a new and better service, in 
which the convert is engaged by his faith in Christ. 
We shall pursue his argument no further, but 
shall endeavour to make a useful application of the 
portion we have considered, of which the substance 
is exhibited in the words of our text. 

It is highly important to observe, in the first 
t 3 



210 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



place, that the complete change which is in this 
passage represented by the figure of dying, and 
entering on a new life, as elsewhere by a new birth 
and a new creation, was a change peculiar to those 
who, having been educated in the corrupt prin- 
ciples and practices of heathenism, were brought 
to a knowledge of the pure doctrines and admi- 
rable morality of the Gospel ; a change which can- 
not take place in those who from childhood have 
been privileged to hear the words of truth ; who 
have been taught with their opening reason the 
character of their Maker and their own obli- 
gations, and whatever cause they may have to 
acknowledge their unworthiness, and repent of 
their sins, however their convictions may be 
strengthened and rendered more practical by im- 
pressive events, or the powerful representations of 
religious teachers, can hardly undergo an entire 
change of opinions, principles, and motives suffi- 
cient to justify so strong a metaphor. In fact, 
when the apostolic language respecting dying and 
entering on a new life, the old and new man, or 
the new creation, all which is appropriate to the 
change from heathenism to Christianity, is di- 
rectly and closely applied to the circumstances of 
Christians in the present day; it only serves to 
encourage enthusiastic notions and extravagant 
expectations, and to substitute a dependence on 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



211 



imagination or feeling for the serious and sober 
pursuit of Christian excellence. The notions of 
the necessity of conversion to those who already 
acknowledge the truth of Christianity, and of a 
sudden and complete change in the state of the 
mind being thus effected, are highly dangerous : 
they interfere with that constant progress, that 
constant desire after increased excellence which 
are the true characters of the Christian life ; they 
encourage spiritual pride and presumptuous con- 
fidence, and sanction the hopes of a sufficient 
repentance on the approach of death, by which 
men are so often led on in a course of sin. But 
whilst we must be careful not to apply to our- 
selves what the apostle tells his gentile converts 
at Rome, respecting their change from a state of 
gross ignorance and moral degradation, to one of 
privilege and blessed hope, we cannot fail to ob- 
serve that the argument respecting the conduct 
which ought to be maintained is equally appli- 
cable to all who enjoy the Gospel light, whether 
it has newly shone upon them, or has enlightened 
the whole of their course. 

Christ has been raised from the dead to an im- 
mortal and glorious life, of the reality of which, 
and of its being designed for all the sojourners in 
this transitory state, he was made v the proof and 
the pledge : as believers in him, we are called to 



212 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



contemplate the event of his resurrection, and the 
promises connected with it in their influences on 
our own situation, and on the determinations to 
which true wisdom would direct us respecting our 
own conduct. Our condition is greatly altered 
from what it would be independently of any suffi- 
cient proof of our destination beyond the grave. We 
are still but strangers and pilgrims upon earth, 
but we know that this short and transient being 
has higher objects than momentary enjoyment ; 
that even its pains and trials may, if properly 
applied, be converted into blessings, and that 
always to look to the closing scene, and regulate 
our pursuits by a regard to what is to follow in a 
state which as yet we can see only with the eye of 
faith, whilst it really confers upon us the truest 
happiness even with respect to the present, is so 
imperatively required by the expectations we have 
reason to form for the future, that to neglect it is 
a wilful sacrifice of a good which is in our power, 
and which is incomparably the most worthy of our 
exertions to secure it. If the reflection should 
ever suggest itself to our minds, " Let us eat and 
drink, for tomorrow we die if our observation 
of the vanity of life, and the uncertainty and 
transitoriness of all earthly good, should for a 
moment incline us to attach little importance to 
our conduct, and to give ourselves up to the 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



213 



guidance of passion and impulse, — we are recalled 
by the consideration that " after death cometh 
judgment," and that the shorter our time of pre- 
paration for that awful scene, the more necessary 
it is that we should make the best use of what is 
allotted to us; that however trifling in them- 
selves may be the affairs of time, when considered 
as affecting our condition in unknown worlds, 
they deserve all our care and diligence, and 
hold out a sufficient reward for all well-applied 
exertions. " Christ was raised from the dead by 
the glory of the Father," and having ascended to 
heaven, was enabled still to assist and communi- 
cate with his disciples on earth, that he might 
prove and illustrate his own promises respecting 
an existence after death and unconnected with 
this world; that he might fix upon that unseen 
state the hopes and affections of all who received 
his religion, and thus at once provide them with 
the only effectual consolation amidst the sorrows 
and sufferings of life, and with the only sufficient 
motive for resisting the seductions of pleasure, and 
adhering to the course of duty. That the life 
which should be led by believers in the resur- 
rection of Christ must be very different from that 
which those who are ignorant or thoughtless of 
futurity may imagine to be wise or justifiable, is 
sufficiently evident. 



214 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



Let us now particularly consider what is im- 
plied in that newness of life in which we are re- 
quired to walk, and how its necessity arises out of 
a consideration of Christ having been raised. 

In the first place, it implies our receiving and 
applying to the regulation of our conduct that 
information respecting God, and what he requires 
from his creatures, which has been from time to 
time communicated by revelation, which in the 
Gospel was improved and opened to mankind at 
large, but which unassisted they were never able 
to obtain. Unless Jesus in the accomplishment 
of his mission, and the establishment of his reli- 
gion, had died upon the cross in obedienee to the 
will of God and devotedness to the good of all 
mankind, sacrificing himself to the fury of his 
enemies ; unless he had been raised again from 
the dead by the glory of the Father, and, having 
thus given incontestable proof of his authority, 
had sent forth his disciples furnished with Divine 
gifts to preach in his name, we must have remained 
in a state of heathen darkness, entertaining the 
grossest conceptions respecting the attributes, 
character, and worship of God, and lost in that 
universal depravity of manners which prevailed 
throughout the world, we should have been in that 
state which is described by the apostle as the " old 
man," and as " being dead in trespasses and sins." 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



215 



From this state there was no deliverance until 
Christ came ; nor by the mere power of human 
reason could there, as far as we can see, ever have 
been any. Through him we are called to a new 
and better mode of life ; we are taught to worship 
and adore a pure and holy God — to consider him 
as the observer of all our actions, to know what he 
requires from his creatures, and to seek his favour 
as our chief good. Thus instructed, we cannot be, 
as those were whose minds had never received the 
Gospel light ; if we are not so greatly changed in 
our habits, principles, and actions, as to be con- 
sidered as leading a new and altogether different 
life, we are unworthy of our privileges, and dis- 
grace our calling. Secondly, the newness of life, 
in which all true Christians should walk, implies 
their having constancy and resolution to restrain 
their evil dispositions and corrupt desires, to sacri- 
fice the inclirt ations which are not sanctioned by 
duty, and to persevere in a course of self-denying 
obedience to the end of their earthly probation. 
The Christian rule, though approving itself to our 
best feelings, and though its observance yields the 
purest pleasure, by controlling all undue indul- 
gences of sense and passion, is opposed to incli- 
nations naturally excited, and often powerfully 
felt. Our master himself was called upon for ex- 
traordinary sacrifices and sufferings, in the fulfil- 



216 NEWNESS OF LIFE. 

ment of his Father's will, and we are all required 
to take up our cross and follow him. He died to 
deliver the world from the power of sin ; we must 
endeavour to crucify the flesh, with its affections 
and lusts. He was raised from the dead by the 
glory of the Father, to enter on a purer and nobler 
existence, from which sin and suffering are for ever 
excluded; we should aspire to a spiritual life. 
Guided by the holy principles, and influenced by 
the animating motives, of the Gospel, we should 
be dead to all vicious indulgences and corrupt 
practices — dead to the world, to whatever is evil 
and degrading in the state of things around us ; 
but having within us the living spirit of holiness 
and charity, excited by the example and promises 
of our master, to constant endeavours after excel- 
lence, cherishing within us the love and fear of 
God, and thus " alive unto him " through " Jesus 
Christ." 

Lastly, the newness of life to which we are 
called, includes a constant reference and regard to 
a state to come. Virtue may be true wisdom, and 
in holiness of heart and life may be the greatest 
peace and satisfaction which the world can bestow ; 
but if there be nothing beyond to hope or fear, 
few will think the difference of good in this fleet- 
ing scene worth the struggle against present incli- 
nation and passion; few will find the promised 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



217 



advantage a sufficiently powerful motive to give 
them the control over their own conduct. It is in 
connection with the assurance of a judgment which 
is to follow death, a righteous retribution for all 
the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil, 
that our conduct here becomes to us most truly im- 
portant, and that we find abundantly sufficient 
motives for directing it according to the demands 
of duty. The few years of mingled pain and plea- 
sure, which we are ordained to spend in this world, 
will soon be past ; but we know not how long may 
continue the effects of the manner in which we 
employ them. The happiness which we are ca- 
pable of obtaining, is above what our present capa- 
cities can estimate, and the tribulation and anguish 
which must be upon every soul of man that doeth 
evil, cannot but be considered as such, that, weighed 
in comparison with it, all earthly suffering is but as 
the small dust of the balance. No reasonable doubt 
remains to us respecting our future destination. 
"Christ has been raised from the dead by the 
glory of his father." He, our elder brother, a 
partaker with us of the same nature, having died, 
has been called to a new existence, and is gone as 
the pledge and pattern of our own change, to that 
state in which we all trust, according to his word, 
that if we live as his disciples, we shall appear 
with him in glory ; in which we believe that we 
v 



218 



NEWNESS OF LIFE. 



must all stand in his judgment, and receive the 
appropriate recompense of our conduct. What 
can we do, then, but live as expectants of immor- 
tality — regulate our actions by a regard to the 
permanent happiness which alone deserves our 
serious care, and, blessing God for having raised 
up from the dead our Saviour, Jesus Christ, show 
our faith in his resurrection, and our confident 
expectation of our own, by leading a new and 
truly Christian life here below, and using all the 
changes of time in preparation for the happiness of 
heaven ! 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS PERFECTED 
THROUGH SUFFERING. 



Hebrews ii. 10. 

u For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain 
of their salvation perfect through sufferings." 

The sufferings which, for the accomplishment of 
his glorious and beneficent mission, our great 
Master was called upon to undergo, both during 
his active life and in immediate connection with 
his death, cannot fail to impress every serious 
reader of his history, and must be regarded with 
the deepest interest by all believers in his Divine 
authority. We may view them in various lights, 
but we always find them appearing important in 
their relation to ourselves, and suggesting to our 
minds considerations immediately useful to us, in 
the practical consideration of his religion. 

The great design of our Saviour's mission, in 
the accomplishment of which he endured so much, 
was to rescue mankind from the power and domi- 
nion of sin, and to bring many children of God to 
the privileges of their Father's house ; to the glory 
and happiness produced by knowledge of, and 
v2 



220 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 

obedience to, his will. His sufferings were on his 
part a voluntary sacrifice for the accomplishment 
of this grand end, and as such are calculated to 
excite towards him our love, admiration and grati- 
tude, whilst they lead us to the imitation of his 
disinterested benevolence, and pious submission to 
the Divine will. 

We may also consider the temptations, trials, 
and afflictions to which he was exposed, as the 
means appointed by his God and father for puri- 
fying and exalting his own character, and ren- 
dering him in all things a complete model and 
guide to his followers. This is the view of the 
subject, upon which our text invites us now to 
bestow some serious attention. 

The observation of the writer to the Hebrews 
is, that "it was a suitable and proper thing for 
the author and disposer of all things, in bringing 
by the Gospel dispensation many sons unto glory, 
to make the first preacher of the doctrine of sal- 
vation perfect through sufferings." It is obvious 
to remark, that whilst God is here designated as 
" him for whom are all things, and by whom are 
all things, who is bringing many sons unto glory/" 
he is plainly pointed out as the original and free 
author of Gospel salvation ; nor is it easy to com- 
prehend how such language can be understood or 
explained by those who represent Jesus Christ as 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 221 

the proper source, or as the purchaser of the 
blessings he communicated. But we are imme- 
diately led by this passage to the contemplation of 
the trials, difficulties, and sufferings endured by 
our Saviour, as the means employed for perfecting 
his character ; means as seem to be clearly taught 
in the text, without the application of which, it 
would not have reached that perfection by which 
it was distinguished. 

Labour, pain, and temptation, are the only 
means by which human nature can be elevated to 
the highest state of excellence of which it is 
capable, the state for which it is ultimately de- 
signed. They are the only means by which the 
character can be formed to true dignity and great- 
ness, and by which its superiority can be proved 
and exhibited. It is to train and fit us for our 
future more glorious condition, for that higher 
rank among the works of God which we are 
destined some time to reach, that the various 
troubles, afflictions, and temptations with which 
this world abounds, have been wisely appointed for 
all of us; and those whom Providence has de- 
signed to raise to extraordinary greatness in the 
present state, have been very generally exercised 
by trials proportionable to the elevation at which 
they have arrived. 

Virtue never attains to strength, unless nursed 
u 3 



222 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 



by adversity and exposed to the varied attacks of 
temptation. It must be remembered that there is 
a wide difference between the excellence of which 
we are now speaking, and mere innocence ; the one 
consisting only in ignorance of evil, the other in re- 
sisting and rejecting it ; the one in not doing harm 
— in mere freedom from criminality, the other in 
doing what is right and good — in vigorous and active 
virtue. Innocence is the charm of childhood; and 
the familiarity with the existence and operation of 
evil which we most of us necessarily acquire, makes 
us contemplate it with a peculiar pleasure, in part 
arising from contrast ; but understood in the same 
sense, we must deny the possibility of its existing 
amidst the various scenes of active life, and it 
would in fact be a very poor exchange for any 
moderate attainments in Christian excellence. Who 
would seriously prefer the blank leaf, with its un- 
sullied purity and whiteness, to that which is 
inscribed with the glowing effusions of genius and 
feeling, on account of some few blots with which 
the latter may probably be stained ? In this world 
we are continually exposed to evil in various forms, 
and we cannot blind ourselves to its presence. 
Virtue consists in enduring and resisting it as we 
ought ; it derives from exercise ever-increasing 
strength, and we have it in our power to go on 
continually improving, every day advancing nearer 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 223 



and nearer towards perfection ; " pressing onward 
towards the mark, for the prize of the high-calling 
of God in Christ Jesus " Without trial, virtue 
can hardly be said to have an existence ; and the 
greater the trials which have been passed through 
well, the more firm and dignified does it become, 
the more it is advanced towards that perfection 
which we are taught to make the standard of our 
aspirations. Hence the frequent declarations of 
Scripture concerning the blessing and uses of 
adversity. " Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 
even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." 
" My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into 
diverse trials." "Our light affliction, which is 
but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more 
exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory." 

We can even see by a little attention in what 
manner trial operates beneficially on the character, 
and how it results from our nature that it must 
be the onl} means of producing superior excel- 
lence. 

Trial consists either in the inducements offered 
to us by the prospect of the attainment of some 
object of desire, or of escape from something that 
we dread ; to depart from a rule of right which we 
have previously recognised more or less distinctly, 
or in pains which we have to endure, which may 
be either sensations or emotions. The first of 



224 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 



these classes we call temptations. He who has 
no principle of right or sense of duty, is altogether 
the sport of circumstances, and is not sufficiently 
advanced in his moral education to profit by the 
discipline of temptation ; but where there once 
exists a conviction, however acquired, that a cer- 
tain course of conduct is right, and that we are 
under obligation to pursue it, then the seductive 
promises of immediate pleasure to arise from de- 
serting it, and the evils which threaten us as con- 
sequences of persevering in it, constitute the moral 
discipline of temptation, the effect of which on 
human minds is most important. The supposition 
that our principles are right, true, or good, im- 
plies that acting faithfully according to them will 
afford us the greatest amount of real and ultimate 
happiness, so that if the whole results of each 
course of conduct were present and visible to us, 
we should, without hesitation, make the right 
choice. The qualities we want are a sufficiently 
frequent and careful consideration of the reasons 
upon which we decide that a certain course is 
right, and a sufficient exercise of imagination in 
anticipating and bringing before our minds, with 
something of the force of reality, the consequences 
of our present actions. If we never felt temptation 
we might conform to a rule of right, but we should 
not be virtuous. Moral excellence, that is, the 



i 

PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 225 

mental state which constitutes the highest happi- 
ness of beings such as we are, implies the triumpli 
of the future over the present, of a regard for the 
happiness of others over what immediately con- 
cerns our own selfish good. Liability to evil is a 
necessary condition of capacity for good. Without 
self-denial, power of resistance, and looking be- 
yond what is present or near at hand, virtue can- 
not subsist. When temptation triumphs — which 
must always be through ignorance, want of power 
to realize what is not present, or feebleness of 
purpose— each fault prepares the way for others, 
and suffering, which is the natural cure for evil, 
becomes necessary. When temptation is resisted, 
the state of the mind and the affections which 
leads to its being withstood, is the same which must 
produce the like result in future ; the exercise of 
our strength increases it, and at the same time 
increases our confidence; and an association is 
formed between a certain class of circumstances 
and the right course of action, which each instance 
confirms, until what is good becomes natural and 
easy to us. The test of virtuous character is, that 
a looker-on may form a reasonable expectation 
that in any given circumstances our conduct will 
be what it ought to be; which implies that we 
have been tried and have shown ourselves pos- 
sessed both of principle and firmness. It is im- 



226 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 

possible for virtue to command respect, or to act 
forcibly as an example, except as the result of its 
having been tested by temptation. 

Pain, whether as sensation or emotion, is, sooner 
or later, an invariable result of moral evil, and is 
the proper means of its cure ; when thus employed 
it assumes the name of punishment, but it has 
other uses also, to which I would now confine our 
attention. Suffering leads us to a proper estimate 
of the different classes of pleasures and objects of 
pursuit amongst mortals. It naturally weakens 
the power of what is present, and encourages hope 
and anticipation. By interfering with the influ- 
ence of the inferior pleasures, it often induces us 
to seek the higher and nobler ones. By giving 
leisure for reflection, and making it a resource, it 
often does much in confirming good principles, 
and fortifying the mind against future temptations. 
It enables us better to sympathize with the suffer- 
ings of others, and hence gives us a much more 
lively desire to serve and bless them. It is the 
great teacher of humility, by making us acquainted 
with our weakness; of piety, by exercising and 
putting to the proof our confidence in our hea- 
venly Father. Though chastening be the grand 
means of correcting what is wrong, the mind which 
is possessed of pure and right principles, is pecu- 
liarly capable of profiting by affliction, and is 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 227 

especially elevated and strengthened in all that is 
good, by its influence — so that nothing can be 
more unreasonable than to regard the trials of life 
as signs of Divine displeasure ; but they are always 
to be received as means of improvement, which, if 
properly used, must promote our real happiness. 
We cannot, ourselves, now understand why they 
are appointed, but we can trust a father's good- 
ness, and look forward to a day when all that 
is now dark shall be illumined, and we shall trace 
the blessing of affliction in its final results. 

That the character of our Lord Jesus Christ 
was actually, as is clearly testified by our text, 
formed and perfected by means similar to those 
employed in the formation of human characters, 
is abundantly established by a reference to the 
Gospel histories. We find that he spent the first 
thirty years of his life in privacy, before he was 
sent forth on his arduous mission — a period during 
which he was, doubtlessly, being prepared and 
trained, by various discipline, for his important and 
glorious work. We are told, that "he grew or 
increased in favour both with God and man;" 
words which, even if their authority should be 
held doubtful,* show the prevalence of the senti- 

* They are found in those introductory chapters of Luke's Gospel, 
the genuineness of which has been by some accounted question- 
able. 



228 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 



ment that his excellence was progressive. On his 
first entrance into public life, we find him exposed 
to and overcoming several powerful temptations, 
to misuse, by applying them to his own aggran- 
disement, the miraculous powers with which he 
was endowed, where let it be observed that the 
Divine communications and extraordinary aids he 
received were so far from excluding him from the 
possibility of being tempted, and making his case 
in this respect essentially different from ours, that 
they were even the occasion of some very dan- 
gerous temptations, to which we of course are not 
liable. 

As we follow him through the trying scenes of 
his ministry, we find him, it is true, always fully 
performing the will of God ; but we are also able, 
sometimes, to observe traces of the struggle by 
which he overcame his natural feelings and wishes, 
to admire his mind, rising superior to difficulties, 
and emerging with brighter radiance from amidst 
clouds of temptation. Read the account of his 
agony in the garden of Gethsemane. — See piety 
and benevolence triumphing over the fear of tor- 
ture and of death, in their most appalling forms ; 
observe the struggle between nature and principle, 
and you will justly estimate, and truly reverence, 
the character thus perfected by suffering. 

How strikingly inconsistent with the declaration 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 229 

of our text, and with the history to which I have 
referred, is the popular notion of the proper Deity 
of our Saviour, originating in a misconception, in 
ignorant times, of the manner in which God was 
always with him, and he was " one with the 
Father." 

It is a part of the perfection of the Divine 
nature, that " God cannot be tempted by evil." 
He is absolutely and essentially perfect. A human 
being can only be called perfect relatively, and his 
excellence must be acquired. God cannot be 
acted upon by temptation ; man must rise above 
temptation by resisting it. Consider then the 
life of Christ, and say, was it the life of God or of 
man ? He is affirmed to have been tempted " as 
we are;" and the perfection ascribed to him is 
spoken of as the effect of his sufferings. To all 
this his history exactly corresponds. If, then, to 
feel all the temptations of humanity, to struggle 
against them, and to conquer them, be at variance 
with the idea of Divine perfection, the doctrine of 
the deity of Christ is inconsistent with every page 
of his history. Nor can I rest in any middle 
scheme. If I endeavour to form a conception of 
angels, it is as beings exalted far above our present 
condition, in moral attainments, and altogether 
beyond the influence of earthly trials and tempta- 
tions, secured from danger by the previous condi- 
x 



230 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 



tion of their minds, and, therefore, in reference to 
such trials as assail us, properly impeccable. But 
I regard it as most evidently the doctrine of my 
text, well supported by the whole New Testament 
history, that our Saviour was by nature capable 
of sin, inasmuch as he felt the force of temptation, 
although, through the excellence of his character — 
the uniformly prevailing power of the pure and 
holy principles which he taught — he remained ac- 
tually without sin. I am, therefore, forced to 
regard him, as I believe the Scriptures really 
represent him, as a human being, a man like his 
brethren, to whom he came as a divinely-inspired 
teacher, and before whom he walked as an example 
and pattern. 

Let us now consider the peculiar value and im- 
portance to us of the doctrine, that our Lord 
Jesus Christ was "made perfect through suf- 
fering." 

We are taught to contemplate with the highest 
veneration the moral attributes of God, and to 
aspire to imitate those of them of which our 
nature can bear any resemblance. We rightly 
desire to conform our minds to his holiness and 
benevolence, but we cannot help seeing that his 
very perfection renders him incapable of being to 
us the example that we want, because his attri- 
butes are naturally unchangeable by any circum- 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 231 

stances, and because many of the qualities re- 
quired from us, arise out of our mortal and suf- 
fering state, and can have nothing analogous to 
them in the character of an eternal, unchangeable, 
and all-perfect Being. Hence the wisdom and 
benevolence of our heavenly Father, making known 
to us his will by a Messenger, who is to us an ex- 
ample as well as an instructor ; and the importance 
to us of the doctrine that the perfection of our 
Saviour's character was formed by circumstances 
similar in kind to those in which we are placed, 
and that the imitation of him is possible to our 
nature, an object to us of reasonable desires and 
endeavours. On the extent of the sufferings of 
Christ, and the circumstances which aggravated 
them, it is not necessary for me on this occasion 
to enlarge. He is a sufficient pattern to all his 
followers, because so severe, so varied, and so 
continued were his trials, that to go through them 
well required a degree of firm and established 
virtue, which could not shrink in any other con- 
ceivable circumstances of pain or misery. In all 
their troubles his followers may look to him for an 
example of steady patience and pious resignation. 
In all their temptations they may look to him as a 
pattern of persevering resistance and self-denial. 

When we consider our own wants and our own 
condition in this world of change, and trouble, 
x3 



232 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 

and temptation, and the great importance which 
is justly attached to the example of our Master, 
we cannot enough admire the wisdom of that 
Providence, which appointed as our leader to sal- 
vation a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief; one who was made perfect by sufferings, 
to whose life therefore we may apply under all 
trials, to learn of him how we may resist temp- 
tation, and turn affliction to our benefit. 

In the New Testament we are almost as fre- 
quently exhorted to imitate as to obey our Divine 
master ; " Put on the Lord Jesus Christ {* " Look- 
ing unto J esus, the leader and finisher of faith 
" Christ hath suffered for us, leaving us an ex- 
ample that we should follow in his steps, who did 
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth 
" He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself 
also so to walk even as he walked." These are 
general : the instances of particular virtues being 
recommended by the example of Jesus are too 
numerous to be brought forward. If we had not 
our Lord's life and conduct to refer to, our ideas 
concerning our duty would, notwithstanding his 
admirable precepts, be in many respects vague and 
imperfect. It is impossible for the most accurate 
and finished description to convey to our minds a 
correct representation of the scenery of nature. 
It may inform us concerning the parts of which a 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 233 

prospect is made up, but it cannot give us the 
effect of the whole ; and in the same manner we 
can judge but badly of a religious or philosophical 
system, from a mere abstract knowledge of its 
parts and principles. We must see it in action, 
in order properly to estimate its value, and still 
more in order to apply it to our own improvement. 
So sensible were some of the wisest of philosophers 
of this fact, that Xenophon has explained his ideas 
of the proper education and conduct of a prince in 
a fictitious history of Cyrus, and Plato has pro- 
mulgated his system of philosophy in its appli- 
cation to the regulation of society, in the account 
of an imaginary republic formed on its principles 
and governed by its laws. These great men were 
obliged to supply by imagination their want of 
power over realities, but they proceeded on just 
views of human nature, for they have adopted the 
very method which has been chosen by the all- 
wise author of the Christian dispensation, who has 
caused the Gospel to be handed down to us in his- 
tories of the life of our blessed Lord, and of the 
conduct and teaching of his first disciples ; that 
we may see its principles in their effects; may 
have a faithful and interesting picture to attract 
our attention, instead of a mere dry system of 
morals, and an example to engage our imitation as 
well as doctrines to instruct, and laws to govern 
x 3 



234 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS 



us. But all that can be said of the excellence and 
importance of the example of Christ, depends in a 
great measure upon the doctrine now under our 
consideration ; that he was perfected by sufferings; 
that he was a being like ourselves in his nature, 
and was fitted for the exaltation he reached, by a 
discipline similar in kind to that to which we are 
exposed. 

If our Lord were a being whose natural and 
necessary perfection prevented him from sinning 
and from suffering ; if his sufferings were either 
merely seeming, or were felt only by the weak 
human part, whilst the Divine nature was beyond 
their reach — then it is difficult to say what advan- 
tage his example affords. If he were not acted 
upon by the same principles, or liable to the same 
feelings with other men, what great benefit can 
they derive from studying his conduct ? The solid 
structure, whose deep foundation is in the living 
rock, will defy the storms and floods which sweep 
away the cabin, whose frail materials are but 
raised upon the sands. The vast oak, whose wide- 
spread roots have withstood the fury of the tem- 
pests of ages, suggests to us no confidence that 
the feeble sapling will resist the blast. The asbes- 
tos web will come forth pure and bright from the 
flame which consumes a more perishable material. 
How then can the victories of a being who is im- 



PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING. 235 

passible and impeccable teach weak mortals to 
believe that they can triumph over temptation, 
or lead them into the way of bearing and im- 
proving affliction? It is when we think of our 
Saviour as one who himself conformed to those 
holy laws, which he has by God's authority com- 
manded us to obey; who was himself sustained 
under the severest sufferings by that very faith 
which he requires us to cherish ; and triumphed 
over the most dangerous temptations by means of 
those pure principles and powerful motives in 
which we are taught to trust, that we feel the 
full force of his example, to encourage us in our 
struggles, and to give us the hope of victory. 

Enthusiastic love may be excited by a sense 
of benefits received, but the admiration of excel- 
lence must be cold and inanimate, which is not 
founded in sympathy, and the attempts at imi- 
tation must be feeble which are not enlivened by 
some hope of success. 

The justice of the observation in the text, re- 
specting the wisdom and propriety of the Divine 
conduct, can only be evident on the principles we 
have maintained. It is because our great fore- 
runner has trodden the path along which we walk, 
has resisted the evil and overcome the difficulties 
to which we are exposed, and has triumphed by 
the use of the same heavenly armour which he has 



236 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS, ETC. 

directed us to put on, that we are interested and 
encouraged by his example, and are enabled to 
walk on amidst trials and dangers with lively 
faith and cheerful hope, that we may be able to 
follow him to the heavenly mansions which he is 
gone to prepare for his faithful followers, in the 
house of his Father and our Father, of his God 
and our God. 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



Matthew v. 8. 
" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 

The language of this beatitude has sufficiently 
plain reference to Jewish customs and principles. 
The Jews, it is well known, paid extraordinary atten- 
tion to bodily purifications, and especially in what- 
ever regarded the worship of God. Neglect of the 
strictest cleanliness, even of garments, excluded 
any one from the temple, and prevented him not 
only from having a part in, but even from wit- 
nessing the services of the altar. Now, in Jewish 
language, the place appointed for Divine worship 
was the presence of God, and to engage in that 
worship was " to see God" and to appear before 
him. Thus David, in a Psalm written whilst he 
was driven from Jerusalem by his enemies, ex- 
presses his desire again to join in the services of 
the tabernacle. " My soul thirsteth for God, for 
the living God," i. e. longeth to see him." " When 
shall I come and appear before God ?" In the text 
our Lord transfers the purity which is required by 
true religion, from the person and dress to the heart, 



238 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



and promises as its reward something higher and 
more conformable to the spiritual nature of the Gos- 
pel, than admission to God's presence in his earthly 
temple. We may understand this either of that 
knowledge of the Divine character and will, which 
through Jesus Christ the pure in heart are enabled 
to acquire upon earth, according to the meaning of 
" seeing God " in our Lord's words — " He that hath 
seen me hath seen the Father " — or of that imme- 
diate and delightful sense of the Divine Presence, 
which shall be enjoyed by the blessed inhabitants 
of Heaven, where nothing unholy can ever enter. 
In either sense, whether respecting this world or 
another, it is true, that " the pure in heart are 
happy, for they shall see God." 

It is a distinguishing excellence of the religion 
of Christ, in comparison with Judaism, which was 
vastly the purest and best religion that had pre- 
viously existed in the world, that whilst the latter 
in condescension to the then existing state of 
mankind, both in its precepts and promises, re- 
lated chiefly to sensible and external things, the 
former is altogether spiritual in its nature, and 
has regard to the mind, both in what it commands 
and what it encourages us to hope. Christianity, 
in fact, is Judaism spiritualized, and Judaism is 
true religion adapted to the capacities and wants 
of mankind in a less advanced state, by being 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



239 



made in all its parts to wear an outer garb, which 
is palpable and perceptible by the senses ; whence, 
in the language of an apostle, the latter is called 
the flesh, the former the spirit, than which terms 
none could be found more strikingly expressive of 
the difference between them. A rabbi boasting 
of the extraordinary purity of the Jewish religion, 
says that not only a clean person must not hold 
any intercourse with an unclean person, but even 
an unclean Pharisee must not hold intercourse 
with any other unclean person. This indeed is a 
refinement or corruption even of Judaism; but 
how strikingly does this finicalness of outward 
purity contrast with that purity of heart which the 
Gospel requires, and how highly does a considera- 
tion of this difference lead us to admire and che- 
rish our own holy faith, which teaches us that as 
God is a spirit, a pure and holy spirit, so we must 
worship and serve him with our spirits ; must 
obey him in our hearts as well as in our actions ; 
must conform our minds as well as our outward 
deportment to his will, and maintain holiness and 
purity even in our inward parts. 

Let us now consider in what the cleanness or 
purity of heart, spoken of by our Lord, should be 
regarded as consisting. And here I shall first re- 
mark, that it must by no means be believed to 
require a perfect freedom from all thoughts and 



240 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



desires which tend to evil — and for this plain rea- 
son, because such an entire purity is not consistent 
with human nature, or in any way attainable by 
man. We are so constituted, that the outward 
circumstances through which we necessarily pass, 
and even our own feelings, cause thoughts and ex- 
cite desires directly leading to what is unholy, 
and the encouragement or gratification of which 
would be criminal. These are temptations which 
we are called upon to resist and overcome, and 
which it is wrong, not to meet with — for of that 
we have no choice, but to yield to. The error of 
supposing Christian purity to require a perfect 
freedom from all intrusion of evil thoughts, is a 
dangerous one, for this reason : When men find 
that they are not, and they cannot be, pure in 
this sense, they take it as a proof that their nature 
is corrupt, and believing that they can do nothing 
effectual, they are discouraged from endeavouring 
after excellence. Not distinguishing between 
being naturally exposed to temptation, and natu- 
rally prone to evil, they make them in effect the 
same ; and because they unjustly condemn them- 
selves, or their first parents, or the God from whom 
they derive their mental frame, for what they 
find to be unavoidable, they make themselves de- 
serving of condemnation for what it is their duty 
and is in their power to avoid. We have, how- 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



241 



ever, the example of our Saviour himself, to show 
that evil suggestions may arise in the mind, with- 
out tarnishing its purity, if they be at once op- 
posed and rejected; for it seems to me that suffi- 
cient reasons have been given for understanding 
the narrative of his temptation in the wilderness, 
of the inclinations to make an improper use of 
his extraordinary powers, which the possession of 
them at first naturally excited, but which his 
habitual piety and devotion to his Father's will 
enabled him instantly to overcome ; and we have 
besides Scripture authority for asserting that " he 
was in all points tempted even as we are," which 
is impossible if he were free from those inward 
temptations which are so dangerous to our virtue. 
We might as well suppose the unruffled surface of 
the clear lake to be stained by the shadow of the 
passing cloud, or the polished mirror to be soiled 
by the objects it reflects, as the mind to be vitiated 
by the thoughts which pass over it, neither being 
voluntarily called up nor retained, or the purity of 
the heart to be tainted by the evil which intrudes 
as an unwelcome visitor, but is instantly driven 
out and chased away. Our Lord could only re- 
commend a quality which is attainable, and which 
must depend for its attainment on our own ex- 
ertions, which can by no means be said of that 
purity which is imagined to consist in entire igno- 



242 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



ranee of, and insensibility to, evil, but which is 
strictly true of the quality which we conceive to 
be designated in the text, and of which we shall 
now attempt to describe the real characters. 

Purity of heart is obviously opposed by our 
Saviour to a mere attention to the externals of 
obedience, and it consequently implies, with re- 
spect to all the vices that can defile and degrade 
our nature, that we not only abstain from them 
in our actions, which we might do from worldly 
motives, but that we also abhor them in our 
hearts, and being seriously convinced of their inju- 
rious and debasing qualities, never think with plea- 
sure of the possibility of falling into them, or suffer 
dispositions to them to exist unchecked within 
us. Our thoughts and desires are so far under the 
control of our reason and our will, that we can 
always check or drive out those which we really 
disapprove and dislike ; and if we steadily resist 
those of any particular kind, successful opposition 
to them becomes more and more a habit, until at 
length the circumstances which at first excited 
them cease to have any such effect. We thus 
gradually acquire dominion in our own minds, 
strengthen ourselves against temptation, and in a 
manner close the avenues by which unworthy 
thoughts and unholy desires might enter our 
hearts. This, however, requires steady deter- 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



243 



urination on our parts, and we are at first exposed 
to great danger from the blandishments of vice. 
It is thus only by resistance and exertion that that 
virtue, in which our heavenly Father has made the 
perfection and true happiness of our nature to 
consist, and after which we ought constantly to 
aspire, can be formed. There is nothing noble, 
exalted, or worthy of our desire, in the innocence 
which is sinless, only because it has never felt the 
force of temptation ; and instead of complaining of 
the dangers to which our virtue is exposed, we 
should bless the kindness which with every temp- 
tation gives us a way to escape, and should endea- 
vour to apply to their true ends those thoughts 
and feelings which would lead us astray from virtue, 
by making them an exercise of the strength of our 
good principles, and finding in them a means of 
exalting the purity of our minds, instead of any 
defilement of it. From what has been said, it 
appears that purity of heart, or freedom from any 
wrong indulgence of the thoughts, wishes, and 
affections, must depend on the careful cultivation 
of religious principles, and the frequent and serious 
consideration of the motives to goodness which 
religion affords us. It is absurd for us to imagine 
that we shall be disposed to make any effort, or 
that any effort we might make could be successful, 
to resist or drive away thoughts naturally arising 



244 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



out of our situations and feelings, and at the time 
promising pleasure, unless we be urged on by 
strong principles and motives ; unless tbe con- 
sciousness that a God of purity observes our 
thoughts, a prevailing fear of his displeasure, a 
desire of attaining to superior excellence, and an 
ardent longing after the rewards of heaven, be 
ruling principles in our minds, and unless we so 
frequently reflect upon the justness and import- 
ance of these principles, as that they may not lose 
any of their force. If we conceive it unnecessary 
for us to use so much precaution, and trust to a 
present feeling in favour of virtue, instead of pro- 
viding means for guarding and strengthening it, 
we shall in all probability suffer the consequences 
of our presumption and folly. There are many 
who imagine that they may safely enjoy in ima- 
gination the delights of vicious pleasure, though 
they dare not partake of the reality, and who, 
erroneously supposing that criminality consists in 
the outward act, not in the disposition or desire, 
are ready to make themselves amends for the re- 
straint they unwillingly lay on their actions, by 
the unlimited indulgence of their thoughts ; to 
such persons may justly be applied our Lord's 
comparison of the Pharisees to whited sepulchres, 
which indeed outwardly are fair to look upon, but 
inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



245 



uncleanness. They are miserably mistaken, if 
they entertain any hopes of the blessings which 
belong to the Divine favour. Let them purify 
the fountain, and the streams that flow from it 
will be bright and clear ; let the tree be good, and 
the fruit will be good also ; but it is in vain they 
pretend to excellence of conduct, whilst they 
neglect purity of heart. Even if they deceive men, 
they can obtain no acceptance from that God who 
observes the springs and motives of their actions. 
Nor indeed is it to be supposed that uniform and 
consistent excellence of conduct can be maintained 
where the heart is not right, for the nature of the 
tree will manifest itself in its fruits. But purity of 
heart consists not only in the resistance and rejec- 
tion of all unholy and unworthy thoughts and de- 
sires, but also in the cultivation of those dispositions 
and affections which raise us most above the mere 
pursuit of animal and sensual gratifications, and 
most assimilate us with the Divine nature. 

Whatever tends to increase our love and admi- 
ration of our heavenly Father — whatever we may 
in any degree consider as an imitation of his 
excellences — whatever calls away our souls from 
the cares of the body, and leads to the cultivation 
of the powers of the mind, or the affections of the 
heart, is favourable to Christian purity. Whilst 
that man must certainly be deficient in it, whose 
v 3 



246 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



thoughts are nearly all occupied in cares respecting 
his bodily part, even though he should not indulge 
wicked and depraved desires. We must conceive 
of an elevation of the affections above the things 
of time and sense, and a devotion of the soul to 
God and religion, as necessary ingredients in that 
virtue, whose reward is to consist in more just and 
delightful conceptions of his character and plans 
than others are capable of enjoying. Those cer- 
tainly cannot be strictly spoken of as pure in 
heart, whose hearts are chiefly occupied in the 
world and its pursuits, even though they should 
not be overrun with unholy thoughts, and cor- 
rupted by vicious indulgences. We must en- 
deavour to raise our desires and affections to 
higher and more enduring pleasures, than most 
of those which here invite our pursuit. We 
must exercise our powers in seeking to under- 
stand and to imitate the Divine perfections. We 
must cherish those feelings towards God, as our 
parent, benefactor, and friend, which are due to 
his character, and are most ennobling and truly 
delightful to ourselves. We must, in fact, take 
religion, not merely as the rule of our actions and 
the controller of our desires, but as the spring of 
our thoughts, and the spirit of our minds. When 
we do this, and not till then, we may hope, in its 
fullest extent, to enjoy the blessing promised to 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



247 



the pure in heart, and attain to the privilege 
which our Saviour pronounced to belong to them. 
And what more glorious, what more truly gratify- 
ing and pleasing privilege can we desire ? What 
more exalted reward can be proposed to us, than 
that of " seeing God " — of being able, whilst here 
on earth, more clearly and constantly to perceive 
his presence, to observe his hand, and to feel his 
care — to understand his character, and to enter 
into the plans of his providence; and when we 
leave this world, of being permitted to enjoy the 
brightest manifestations of his presence, to behold 
his unclouded glory, and to have a part in that 
fulness of joy which is in his presence, in those 
eternal pleasures which are at his right hand ? 

We are assured, that into heaven " nothing un- 
holy can ever enter." We can only fit ourselves 
for its employments, and secure a share in its 
lasting felicity, by maintaining and cultivating 
purity of mind and conduct. It would be vain 
for us to expect that the pursuit of vicious plea- 
sure, or the gratification of bad passions, should 
lead us to the happiness which it promises; 
and we shall be equally mistaken, if we suppose 
that we can obtain it by the indulgence of evil 
thoughts, or the permission of unholy desires. 
If, then, we believe in the revelations which 
God has made to us, of his mind and will — if we 



248 



CHRISTIAN PURITY. 



value the glorious hopes and promises which he 
has proposed to us as the reward of obedience — if 
we desire, even here, to enjoy delightful percep- 
tions of his presence, and obtain glorious and 
animating views of his character and providence, 
— and if we aspire hereafter to see his face, and 
partake in the never-fading bliss which is enjoyed 
by those who surround his throne ; let us, none of 
us, be contented with external obedience, or with 
mere abstinence from forbidden things, but endea- 
vour to purify our hearts from all defilement — to 
govern our thoughts, to regulate our affections, to 
raise our minds to the noblest objects, and to prepare 
our way to heaven by the cultivation of heavenly 
dispositions and affections, and by that Christian 
purity which has emphatically received the pro- 
mise, that those who possess it shall see God. To 
this end, let us carefully examine our hearts. Let 
us endeavour to imbue our minds with Christian 
principles, and to give the motives of religion 
the strongest influence over us. And may that 
God, who alone is able to keep us from falling, by 
his grace assist our endeavours, and bring us, at 
last, into the presence of his glory with exceeding 

joy- 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 



1 Thessalonians v. 22. 
" Abstain from all appearance of evil." 

The Christian religion is not more admirable for 
its grand design, which is to ameliorate the condi- 
tion of humanity, by leading men to virtue and to 
happiness, than for the wisdom with which it is, 
in all its parts, adapted to this great end, and the 
perfect knowledge of human nature which is dis- 
played in all its precepts and ordinances. 

Not content with requiring the outward form of 
godliness, and attention to all the external duties 
of religion and morality, it seeks to regulate the 
thoughts of the heart, and assumes a control over 
the inmost workings of the mind ; and, on the 
other hand, not satisfied with insisting on the 
reality of obedience, it demands, also, a regard to 
the appearance of it, and claims the outward 
homage, as well as the secret devotion of its 
subjects. 

With a view of directing your attention on the 
present occasion to this latter branch of our duty 



250 THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 

as Christians, I have chosen, as the foundation of 
my discourse, the exhortation of Paul to the Thes- 
salonians, Abstain from all appearance of evil. To 
explain, illustrate, and enforce which will supply 
us with abundant materials for the useful employ- 
ment of a small portion of time. 

The meaning of the apostle is, that we ought 
not unnecessarily to expose ourselves to the impu- 
tation of evil ; to suffer our conduct to approach 
so near the boundary of right and wrong, as to 
be in any degree equivocal, or without good rea- 
son to do any thing which is likely to be thought 
evil by others; in all which cases, although we may 
ourselves have no intention of departing from the 
right way, there is that appearance of evil, the 
character and consequences of which we are now 
to investigate. It is, however, evident that in per- 
forming this duty we must carefully attend to the 
motives of our conduct, and that we may fall into 
as serious errors under the appearance of obeying 
the apostolic injunction as in the total neglect of 
it. Whilst our reasons for avoiding any outward 
semblance of vice or irreligion, or any thing that 
men may mistake for them, are a hearty conviction 
of the evil of sin, and a desire to escape all con- 
nection with it, a just fear of the bad influences on 
our characters and conduct, which might result 
from a contempt of appearances, a regard for the 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 251 

honour of our holy religion, which must be ad- 
vanced or injured by the conduct of its professors, 
and a sense of the duty of setting a good example 
before our brethren, — we are perfectly safe ; but if 
a love of reputation in the world, and a fear of the 
bad opinion of our fellow men, be at all admitted 
among the grounds of the apostle's precept, we 
are in great danger of perverting its meaning, and 
being led by it into serious error. I do not say 
this as wishing altogether to efface from the mind 
all interest in the opinions which our fellow men 
entertain of us, or all sense of their approbation or 
condemnation. This would hardly be natural, or, 
unless under very peculiar circumstances, even 
possible ; and where it seems most nearly to be 
effected, it is often er in connection with vice 
than virtue. So that, upon the whole, a regard, 
kept within proper bounds, to the opinions of the 
world, is allowable, and even useful, and will 
generally be found to be characteristic of a mind 
at least not entirely alienated from virtue. But 
so common is the sacrifice of principle to appear- 
ances, so dangerous is the influence of the fear of 
men's judgment, that I should be extremely cau- 
tious of admitting a regard to personal reputation 
as a distinct motive to action — and I cannot 
suppose that it entered, in any degree, into the 
apostle's views, when he commanded us to " ab- 



252 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 



stain from the appearance of evil." There are, 
indeed, so many cases in which the dictates of 
duty are opposed to what the world requires, that, 
however we may indulge satisfaction in its smiles, 
if we look to its approbation as a motive it will 
draw us into criminal conduct, with a force which 
we shall not always find it easy to resist ; and it 
is much better for us to strengthen our minds for 
withstanding it, than to increase its power by 
acknowledging its right to influence us. Allowing 
it to be the fact, that the decisions of society at 
large are generally in favour of virtue, and that at 
least some appearance of it is necessary for ob- 
taining the applause of men — a concession which, 
however, ought not to be made without a large 
allowance for the deceits of false glory and splendid 
vices, as well as for the pernicious indulgence com- 
monly extended to some actions which religion 
most strongly condemns — still, when we carefully 
weigh this worldly reputation, we shall find it very 
little deserving of the pursuit of those who can 
obtain so much higher satisfaction from the ap- 
probation of their consciences, and the hope of 
Divine favour ; and we shall perceive that its in- 
fluence depends so much on the character of the 
particular society into which we may happen to be 
thrown, that it is altogether doubtful how it may 
lead us • whilst it is next to certain, that our own 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 253 

consciences must often drive us in opposition to 
what would most advance us in the favour of our 
fellow-creatures. If any weight at all is to be 
given to the consideration of what men think of us 
so far as respects our own feelings, what will be our 
situation when, in order to serve God, we are 
obliged to incur the ill opinion of the world — even 
of many excellent and valuable characters ? When 
we are obliged to expose ourselves to charges of 
heresy, presumption, or blasphemy, and, in ex- 
posing popular delusions, in practising sincerity 
and benevolence, are despised, rejected, and con- 
demned by the great majority of mankind? In 
such situations, which are by no means of uncom- 
mon occurrence, instead of attaching undue im- 
portance to that favour which we cannot preserve 
but at too dear a rate, it is better for us to look 
to the example of our Master and pattern, who, 
pure, holy, and admirable for every excellence as 
he was, was nevertheless calumniated and per- 
secuted by an ungrateful world, who considered as 
evil his benevolent exertions for its salvation. 
That we should be encouraged and cheered by the 
sympathy of those who are, like ourselves, lovers of 
virtue, and who agree with us as to what is right, 
and good, and true, is natural ; but the moment the 
approbation of men becomes a motive for action, 
and a consequent fear arises of doing what may to 



254 THE APPEARANCE OP EVIL. 

them appear evil, our situation is dangerous — it is 
time for us to guard our hearts against the fear 
of men, and to recollect that the opinion of the 
world is of little consequence to him who enjoys 
the blessing of an approving conscience. Never, 
I would say, abstain from any line of conduct, or 
perform any action, because it will gain or lose you 
worldly reputation. In this sense, do not abstain 
from the appearance of evil. Do not adopt other 
men's standard of right and wrong, or be in- 
fluenced by their views, any further than as they 
approve themselves to your own judgment and 
conscience. I have been full on this point, be- 
cause it seems so natural — it is indeed so common 
to make a regard to reputation one motive for 
avoiding the appearance of evil ; but I am con- 
vinced that this motive cannot be safely employed ; 
that though it may naturally have some influence 
with us, it is what we are rather required to re- 
strain and control, if we wish to be eminent for 
the purity of our Christian faith and practice ; I 
am satisfied that the appearance of evil will very 
often be the course of duty. Nevertheless, the 
apostle's advice properly viewed is admirable and 
important, and I now proceed to consider the 
motives on which I conceive it to be founded, and 
by which it ought to be regulated. 

In the first place, a hearty conviction of the evil 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 255 

of sin, and a sincere desire to oppose it to the 
utmost. The man who understands that what 
is wrong must always tend to present or future 
suffering; that vice and misery are inseparable 
companions, and that there is no true peace to 
be found but in the path of duty — must certainly 
have such a lively abhorrence of what is evil, as 
to dread and dislike whatsoever bears the re- 
motest resemblance to it. His anxiety to escape 
pollution and overcome temptation will make 
whatever looks like sin, or is nearly connected 
with it, alarming to him, and he will feel dis- 
gust at that course, which with a near resemblance 
of fashionable vices and follies, would aim to 
avoid their criminality. The appearance of evil 
can be attractive to those only who wish to prac- 
tise the reality, but are restrained by fear ; and 
their indulging themselves as far as they dare, is 
surely no favourable sign of the strength of their 
good resolutions. Virtue implies the hatred of 
sin, and that must be a very unsafe state in which 
we waver between the two, wearing in any degree 
the semblance or drawing upon ourselves the im- 
putation of what our better judgment condemns. 
But, secondly, there is a natural consequence of 
the neglect of the appearance of virtue and piety, 
which shows us the wisdom and value of the pre- 
cept of the text ; there is a danger arising out of 
z2 



256 THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 

our constitution that the appearance of evil will 
very shortly lead to the reality. If we allow our- 
selves to approach near the boundaries of vice — 
if we suffer forms of sin to become familiar to 
us, or indulge ourselves in any conduct which 
establishes a resemblance or connection between 
us and the wicked — habit will gradually diminish 
our abhorrence of what is evil, in the same man- 
ner as it reconciles us to degrees of heat and cold, 
which were at first painful, and leads us to like 
tastes and smells which at first disgusted us. 
What numbers who have set out in life with the 
strongest attachment to virtue, and the fullest 
intention of adhering to it, have sacrificed their 
peace from not being sufficiently distrustful of 
their own strength, or being duly aware of the 
danger attending the appearance of evil ! As those 
who stand on the dizzy summit of a fearful pre- 
cipice are often seized with an inclination to 
throw themselves from it, and court the death 
which threatens them, so there are few who have 
a head strong enough to contemplate the abyss 
of vice without precipitating themselves into it, 
though they know that in doing so they are rush- 
ing on destruction. He who understands his own 
frame, and has a proper sense of his weakness 
and frailty, will keep himself as far removed as 
possible from all intercourse with, or resemblance 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 257 

of, evil. He will be careful to avoid even the 
slightest show of it, and will never suffer himself 
to be seduced by the prospect of any trifling 
advantage into assuming an appearance of which 
he knows and dreads the danger. 

Thirdly. That which the apostle seems to have 
had most immediately in his view, in exhorting 
his converts to u abstain from the appearance of 
evil," is that they should be careful " not to dis- 
grace the holy name by which they were called." 
He expresses the same thing differently in the 
Epistle to the Ephesians : " Neither give place to 
the devil." Give not any opportunity to the 
calumniator. Let not your conduct afford the 
watchful enemies of your religion any occasion of 
speaking against it, and be so particular in this 
respect, as not only to abstain from real sins, but 
cautiously to avoid what may have the appearance 
of evil, and may plausibly be represented as such. 
We must not dread what others may blame in our 
principles, but we must take care that they detect 
no real, or even apparent inconsistency between 
our principles and our conduct, from which 
they may infer the little power of religion, or 
our indifference to it, notwithstanding our pro- 
fessions. 

All who are sincerely attached to the cause of 
pure religion, who are sensible of the blessings 
z 3 



258 THE APPEARANCE OP EVIL. 



which the Gospel has conferred, and of those 
which it is yet capable of bestowing on the human 
race, must see the importance of showing the ex- 
emplary purity of its morality, by abstaining from 
whatever may afford ground for reproach, even 
by an appearance of what is wrong. All who 
love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, and truly rejoice 
in the name of Christians, will delight to make 
that name respected and honoured in the world, 
by walking always before men in a manner worthy 
of the vocation wherewith they are called. When 
the exhortation in the text was delivered, the 
church of Christ was every where surrounded by 
malignant enemies, who were seeking opportu- 
nities of attacking it, and in these times watch- 
fulness against every thing which may be a cause 
of reproach is scarcely less necessary, not only on 
account of open unbelievers, and of violent op- 
posers of those peculiar views of Christian truth 
which we embrace and should endeavour to adorn, 
but also of the influence which our conduct has 
upon our fellow disciples ; which introduces me to 
the last of those principles on which I found the 
duty enforced in the text. To set a good example 
to those around us is manifestly a branch of 
Christian charity, since it is a way in which we 
all have it in our power to encourage aud serve 
each other ; and it is particularly required from us 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 259 

all by the precepts of the New Testament. " Ye 
are the salt of the earth." " A city set upon a 
hill cannot be hidden." " Let your light so shine 
before men, that they may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." " In 
all things show thyself a pattern of good works." 
" Let us consider one another, to provoke unto 
love and good works." The propriety of these 
commands we are every one of us ready to allow, 
as they relate to others j but almost all persuade 
themselves, in their own case, that they are not of 
consequence enough for their conduct to be taken 
as an example — a curious proof, that although 
men are in general so prone to vanity, they can, 
when it suits their feelings at the time, deviate 
into the opposite extreme of underrating their 
importance in society ; and yet those whom our 
blessed Lord first addressed as the " salt of the 
earth," " the light of the world," " a city set 
upon a hill," were amongst the poor and ignorant, 
distinguished neither by rank, nor wealth, nor 
learning — nor by any of those circumstances which 
usually claim the respect of mankind. 

Let, then, the meanest amongst us be convinced, 
that if he honestly and faithfully discharge the 
duties of his station, his light shall not be hid, but 
he shall shine forth as an example to others, and 
lead them, in the imitation of his excellences, to 



260 THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 

glorify his Father who is in Heaven. The man— 
if such there should be amongst you — who has no 
family who depend on him, no friends who love 
him, no servants who look up to him, but stands 
insulated and unconnected in the midst of society, 
may say that his conduct is unimportant to any 
but himself, and let him look to himself: but 
there is no such man — there is not a being in the 
universe, who is not connected with his fellows by 
reciprocal dependence. Every link in the chain 
of society, as in that of nature at large, is bound 
to that above and that below it. There does not 
exist the flower which is 

" born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 

Its glowing colours may indeed never delight the 
eye of man ! the proud lord of the creation may 
never imbibe its fragrance — but the wild bee draws 
honey from its secreted store, the gay butterfly 
rests upon its bosom, contrasting its beauties with 
his own, and thousands of sentient beings enjoy 
the provision which their bountiful Father has thus 
raised for them out of the bosom of the earth. 
Apply the analogy, and consider if there can be a 
human being altogether independent of his race. 
There is not one who is not bound by some ties \ 
there is not one whose conduct is not important, 



THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 261 

from its influence on others' as well as on his own 
happiness. All are under obligation, as far as 
possible, to make their example a light and 
guide to direct their brethren ; and to this end it 
is necessary that they abstain from all appearance, 
as well as from the reality, of evil — otherwise their 
light may be only like the ignis fatuus gleam, 
which betrays its followers to danger, or even to 
destruction. 

There are so many careless professors of Chris- 
tianity, that those who really feel its importance, 
and are disposed to obey its commands, are pecu- 
liarly called upon to make their conduct a public 
testimony in its favour, by abstaining even from 
the appearance of whatever might dishonour or 
disgrace it. 

Such are the principles upon which chiefly the 
obligation of the precept in our text seems to me 
to depend, and which, surely, afford us abundant 
motives for obeying it. Consider well, my bre- 
thren, unto what a holy and sanctifying faith you 
are called, and act as becometh those who are 
blessed with it. Suffer not yourselves to be de- 
ceived by the notion that there can be safety 
under the appearance of what is evil) but as you 
regard your own peace, as you consider your duty 
to your fellow Christians, or feel the power of Chris- 
tian love, be careful in avoiding the semblance of 



262 THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. 

sin : and, so far as your most zealous endeavours' 
will avail, so far as human frailty will permit, 
present unto the God of purity an offering which 
the God of mercy will accept. 



THE HETEIBUTORY EFFECT OF 
MEMORY. 



Proverbs xiv. 14. 
" A good man shall be satisfied from himself." 

It is the doctrine of Scripture, that the good man 
shall receive his reward, both in the present life, 
and in that higher state of existence which is to 
succeed it ; that he shall not only be, on the whole, 
much happier than the wicked, in respect to ex- 
ternal things, but that he shall secure to himself a 
peace of mind altogether unattainable by those 
who neglect God's laws — without which, what- 
soever of gain or pleasure the world may afford, is 
deceitful and worthless, whilst with it the evils of 
life are lightly felt, and cheering beams enliven its 
most afflictive scenes. 

For confirmation of the truth of this doctrine, 
as far as relates to the present state, I might ap- 
peal to the recorded testimonies of past experience, 
or to the judgment of any who have spent many 
years among their fellow-creatures, on what they 
have observed around them. I might quote to 
you proverbs originating in the very earliest period 



264 THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT 

of human society, and stamped with the approba- 
tion of all succeeding generations. I might ask 
you whether, reasoning from what you have your- 
selves seen and known, you have ever esteemed 
those happy who have nourished by injustice, 
fraud, and rapacity, or have sought the chief en- 
joyment of their prosperity in splendour, sen- 
suality, or avarice. But there is another view of 
the subject, which is well worthy of our attention, 
and to which I would, at present, direct your 
minds. 

I would show you, from a consideration of our 
mental constitution, how it is that altogether inde- 
pendently of the course of outward events, "the 
good man is satisfied from himself," and that he 
only can possess, amidst all changes, such joy, and 
peace, and consolation as we naturally desire and 
seek. I shall even find it necessary at this time 
to confine myself in a great measure to one class 
of the mental states upon which the happiness of 
the good man depends, and I shall select that 
which embraces the pleasures he derives from 
the review of his past actions, though his advan- 
tage with respect to anticipation and hope is 
neither less evident nor less important. All our 
enjoyments and pains must arise either from 
our present circumstances and employments, or 
from the exercise of our mental faculties upon 



OF MEMORY. 265 

our past or future condition. What is present 
is not found sufficient constantly to occupy our 
thoughts. Even at that period of life when we 
possess the greatest degree of activity, when we 
are most susceptible of the charm of novelty, and 
when all our passions are in their greatest warmth 
and vigour, we cannot be always active, or always 
interested in what is before and around us ; even 
then we are greatly dependent on memory and 
imagination, and find many an hour pass delight- 
fully or miserably, according to the pictures which 
they present for oar contemplation. By a beauti- 
ful and beneficent contrivance, the superior ardour 
of hope, excited by constant novelty, and as yet 
unchecked by disappointment, abundantly sup- 
plies, in the earliest period, the want of the re- 
sources of memory ; and, as experience gradually 
limits the flight, and sobers the colouring, of the 
one, the other comes in to supply its deficiencies, 
or rival its attractions. What fancy paints, in 
glowing youth, of the pleasures and pursuits of 
the world, is generally so false and illusory, that 
it is well we are so seldom allowed to make trial 
of its truth, without at least some attempt having 
been made to undeceive us by the warning lessons 
of wisdom. Happy it is for us, if those brilliant 
tints which at first play over the vanities of this 
life, instead of being lost as we rise above these 
2 A 



266 



THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT 



exhalations, are shed, in their fall glory, on the 
bright prospects of futurity, or softly reflected on 
the rugged and toilsome path we have left behind 
us. Happy it is if we are consoled for our convic- 
tion, that so many terrestrial pursuits are unsatis- 
fying and vain, by the confident anticipation of 
heavenly blessings, and the joyous retrospect of an 
honourable and virtuous course ; it is at least cer- 
tain that we very early begin to occupy ourselves 
much upon the past, as well as the future; and 
that, as the field of memory is continually en- 
larging, it assumes constantly increasing import- 
ance with us, until at last a decline in the powers 
of active enjoyment throws us greatly on its re- 
sources, and renders us, in a degree which, at 
some periods of life, we could scarcely have ima- 
gined possible, dependent on its accumulated stores. 

Is there any who, in the sprightliness of youth, 
under the enchantment of pleasure, thinks that 
in the future there is time enough to be wise; 
that now is the season for gaiety and joy, and 
that when hope can no longer find a subject 
below, it will naturally lead the way to the state 
which is to follow ? I stop not now to remind 
him of the disappointment he must experience 
even in attaining what he desires, of the uncer- 
tainty of the days on which he reckons, or of the 
improbability that hope, worn out in the chase of 



OF MEMORY. 267 

folly, and clogged with the mire of sin, will at last, 
with feeble, drooping wing, direct her flight to 
scenes of distant glory. I stop not now to ask 
him. whether his imagination, agitated by the 
solemn warnings of religion, is not more likely, as 
he approaches the boundary of things seen, to pre- 
sent to him terrific and appalling pictures ; but 
I would impress upon him that so long as he 
remains a tenant of this earthly tabernacle, there 
is a faithful mirror ever forcing the past on his 
review, as well as an opening through which he 
endeavours to discover the misty future. In that 
mirror all is shown clearly, distinctly, and con- 
nectedly. He can no longer avail himself of the 
deceptive excuses which satisfied him at the mo- 
ment for doing wrong. Vice loses its attraction, 
but plainly shows its true character and effects. 
Evil is no longer palliated, but it is perceived and 
traced even to its present wretched consequences. 
If he have passed by the opportunities of securing 
real bliss ; if he have despised the delightful re- 
freshments offered to his taste, but seized the 
forbidden fruit, " which turns to ashes on the lips;" 
if, not content with doing wrong himself, he have 
seduced and misled others, causing misery which 
it is no longer in his power to cure, — all this is 
frequently set before him; he is compelled to 
dwell upon it and realise every part. He must do 
2 a 2 



268 THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT 

so again and again in the lengthening intervals of 
his active pursuits. More and more he becomes 
dependent on his own internal resources, and 
more and more these horrid images (haunting him 
as spectres of his departed pleasures) agonise him 
with the conviction of past folly, and the dread 
of its further consequences. Imagination seeks 
its materials as much in memory as in surrounding 
objects and passing sensations, and no pleasing 
expectations can be indulged for the future, where 
the past utters only reproaches. Miserable then — 
most miserable — is the state of that man to whom, 
in advancing years, the scenes he has gone through 
can suggest only painful and gloomy reflections ! 
Let none be so deceived as to imagine that if con- 
vinced of his error, he can separate himself from 
his past conduct, and evade its effects ; for even if 
God would accept of a late repentance made in 
the prospect of death, or when sin can no longer 
charm, as a sufficient proof of freedom from the 
corruption of vice and fitness for the purity of 
heaven, the nature he has given us will not allow 
us to escape from the punishment we have de- 
served. Memory will bring up in dark array 
before awakened conscience the crimes and follies 
of departed years. Remorse, with worse than scor- 
pion stings, will torment the agitated mind, and 
despair will brood in darkness on the fearful future. 



OF MEMORY. 



269 



Since then we find that memory exerts an in- 
fluence so important, so seldom duly considered, 
on the happiness of life, it is worth our while 
carefully to examine the effect of different kinds of 
actions and events when looked back upon by the 
mind, that we may thus establish an additional 
and very valuable criterion for determining our 
choice amidst the various attractions of the world. 
We shall not, I believe, find much difficulty in 
satisfying our inquiries. If, when tempted by any 
vicious pleasure, we would seriously put the ques- 
tion to our minds, how it would appear when 
looked back upon from a distance — how even as 
soon as the moment of enjoyment is over ? — we 
could seldom fail of being so much struck with 
the answer, as to despise and reject the momen- 
tary enjoyment. How happy would it be for us, 
could we be more influenced by reflection and 
anticipation, less enslaved to present and sensible 
things ! How much wiser then would be our 
actions ! How much more pure our pleasures ! 

To proceed, then, with our proposed examina- 
tion. What, let us ask, will be the effect of sen- 
sual pleasures, especially of vicious indulgences? 
What of the toilsome chase of riches and worldly 
greatness? What of the pursuit of knowledge, 
and intellectual labour? What of virtuous self- 
denial, and resisted temptation ? What of bene- 
2 a 3 



270 THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT 

volent exertions, and what of the pains, disap- 
pointments, and sorrows of life, when no longer 
acting upon us as present things, but laid up in 
the archives of memory, and calmly reviewed as a 
store from which our remaining clays are to be 
supplied with recollections which we should wish 
to be cheering and consoling ? 

Alas, my friends, for him who relies on mere 
sensual pleasure for any future satisfaction ! Even 
when not carried beyond the permitted bounds, it 
is peculiarly its quality, as if to counterbalance 
the force with which its near prospect attracts us, 
that it does not satisfy us in the review. We 
always wonder afterwards what it was which ex- 
erted so powerful a charm, and regard with indif- 
ference, except so far as they are relieved by 
associations of intellectual gratification, or affec- 
tionate feeling, the most brilliant of its departed 
joys ; but if we have indulged to a forbidden and 
degrading excess — if we have purchased pleasure 
by a base or unworthy action — if we have snatched 
it where the laws of God have forbidden us to 
touch, or have suffered ourselves, against our 
better judgment, to be seduced into scenes where 
gaiety hides corruption, how is it, then, that we 
are affected in looking back upon such conduct ? 
What feelings, but those of loathing and disgust, 
can follow such enjoyments ; what does the recol- 



OF MEMORY. 



271 



lection of them cause us to think of ourselves, of 
our judgment, of our firmness, of our reasonable 
grounds for hoping for Divine mercy ? Does any 
man plunge into the filth of sensuality, and not 
afterwards feel himself defiled and degraded by it ? 
Does any listen to the siren voice of pleasure, and 
not feel that he was drawn from his course only 
to be destroyed — and not bitterly lament his weak- 
ness and folly? It is nothing to say that no 
possible satisfaction can ever arise from the recol- 
lection of vicious indulgence — it must be a per- 
petual source of vexation or of fear — it must so 
imbitter after-life, that nothing but deep contri- 
tion, and long-sustained efforts, effectually to 
change the disposition, can restore peace and com- 
posure to the mind. We need not, surely, say 
much of hours devoted to the attainment of riches 
and power. The business of life demands from 
most of us diligence and activity; and, whilst con- 
ducted with honour and principle, in doing full 
justice to others, and not envying them their ad- 
vantages, the hours it has occupied, if not looked 
back upon with peculiar interest, will at least 
afford a general satisfaction, and, if God have 
blessed our labours with prosperity, we shall enjoy 
it unreproached, with a consciousness of having 
done something towards deserving it ; but all that 
belongs to wealth and greatness is, after all, but 



272 THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT 

vanity and vexation of spirit, uncertain both in its 
continuance and in its power of pleasing ; and at 
best a miserable return for the avaricious cares, 
the envious feelings, the illiberal — not to say unjust 
— conduct by which men too often labour to 
obtain it. If the retrospective eye must dwell on 
these, not all that the world can give of outward 
good, will compensate for the bitter reflections 
they will occasion. 

What, then, must be said of the pursuits of 
science, the search after knowledge, and the exer- 
tions of intellect ? These are among the occupa- 
tions of our time and faculties, which give no 
cause for repentance. The results of our labour 
belong to the mind. There are collected stores 
on which it dwells with increasing satisfaction, as 
it learns with greater clearness to arrange — with 
greater skill to combine them ; and as even the 
difficulties which occur to us in the search after 
truth and knowledge, serve to call our powers into 
more vigorous exercise, and to animate our zeal, 
the review of them only gratifies us with the con- 
sciousness of intellectual energy, whilst it revives 
the remembrance of rational and unreproved de- 
lights. 

We advance to yet higher pleasures : and I am 
well persuaded, that when I affirm that no recol- 
lection can be stored in the mind, affording more 



OF MEMORY. 



273 



pure, lively, or durable gratification, than of our 
having sacrificed our inclinations on the shrine of 
duty, or triumphed in the arduous struggle with 
the temptations of the world, every virtuous mind 
will sympathize in the sentiment, acknowledging 
that, with such rewards, the labours of virtue are 
not even here left unrepaid. While we are en- 
gaged in the contest with temptation, and are 
suffering its needful discipline, we have indeed to 
resist and endure, to a degree which demands our 
utmost exertion : well may we be required to 
"take up our cross and follow our master," to 
" crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts." 
But if, directed by his precepts, and encouraged by 
his example, we can bear the trial, and withstand 
the allurement, what is there that the world af- 
fords, which we would exchange for the feelings 
with which we reflect on such a circumstance? 
what are all earthly charms in comparison with 
them ? They are not feelings of pride and self- 
exaltation, and presumptuous boasting; but of 
chastened joy and humble hope, of lively convic- 
tion of the value of truth and goodness, and 
ardent desires after increased excellence ; they are 
feelings which leave spots of undying freshness 
and beauty in the memory, to cheer and enliven 
future years : unite with them the recollections of 
benevolent exertions and sacrifices — of opportuni- 



274 



THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT 



ties which we have well employed, of relieving 
distress, consoling affliction, diffusing useful know- 
ledge, or promoting the moral and social improve- 
ment of our brethren : and what more do we re- 
quire to twine an amaranth wreath of unfading 
beauty ? — what can be wanting, that we may be 
satisfied, from our own minds, and may find, in 
our reflections on the scenes through which we 
have passed, the most delightful refreshment 
amidst present labours, and the best encourage- 
ment to future activity ? 

It only remains for us to inquire how far the cala- 
mities and sorrows incident to our mortal condition 
have power to sadden our pleasing recollections, and 
make memory a source of pain to many a virtuous 
mind. So far is this from being the case, that by 
a most wise and benevolent appointment of Provi- 
dence, our sufferings become, in a distant review, 
even an additional source of pleasure to us. The 
hardships we have passed through, the pains we have 
endured, are exhibited by memory so softened by dis- 
tance, and touched by the harmonizing tints of time 
— like the ruined tower once the seat of war and 
violence, but now surrounded by the green untrod- 
den turf, embraced by the ivy, and painted with 
the gray and yellow lichens — that they only gently 
remind us of the contrast between past suffering 
and present peace, so as to give us a livelier feeling 



OF MEMORY. 



275 



of our blessings. Even the ravages of death are 
not contemplated with lasting pain by the religious 
mind. The parting hour is one of sadness and 
depression : but when we have dwelt on the as- 
surances of faith, and the consolations of piety — 
when time has worn down the keen edge of sorrow, 
and we rise from tears and grief, to engage in the 
remaining duties of life, better fitted for their 
proper performance, like the flower oppressed with 
the dews of morning, when it lifts up its head to 
the sun, better prepared to support its ardours — 
we then find that we have been blessed in our 
affliction, that we are less worldly, less selfish, more 
moderate in our own desires, more anxious to do 
our part in the service of others, more considerate 
of our frailty, and more interested in the state to 
come. Then the remembrance of the days spent 
with the departed object of our affections becomes 
not only a pleasure, but a valuable means of im- 
provement to us ; and, as we dwell on the well-re- 
membered proofs of an amiable, pious, and virtuous 
disposition, we draw sweets from the bitter flowers, 
hopes of joyful re-union and uninterrupted bliss, 
from the contemplation of bereavement and sepa- 
ration. 

You see, then, my brethren, that under all 
the circumstances of life " the good man is satis- 
fied from himself;" that independently of ex- 



276 THE RETRIBUTORY EFFECT OF MEMORY. 

ternal events, and by the very constitution of our 
minds, he is happy, because his memory furnishes 
him with the most pleasing subjects for contem- 
plation and reflection. Stores of delight, collected 
during life's bright and sunny days, to cheer its 
wintry hours, when the season of activity is past 
— of which neither the accidents of fortune, nor 
any of the sorrows of time, can deprive him. 

On the contrary, this very faculty of memory is 
made the sure punishment and scourge of the 
wicked. It never fails to bring before him his 
neglected opportunities, his violated duties, his 
false and miserable attempts at pleasure. It ag- 
gravates to him those evils of life which come 
alike to all — destroys his relish for external good, 
and renders him more and more unhappy, as ad- 
vancing years bring him nearer to that time when 
remorse must be followed by retribution. 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



Romans xii. 12. 
" Rejoicing in Hope." 

These words will naturally introduce some reflec- 
tions on the subjects of Christian hope, and its 
influence on the character and happiness of those 
who cherish it. 

Hope is the anticipation of obtaining any of the 
objects of desire. As in this world we are seldom 
permitted fully to accomplish any of our wishes, 
and it is inconsistent with our nature to be ever 
entirely occupied with present things, so that we 
are continually either reverting to the past, or 
stretching our eager view into futurity, hope is 
one of our most pleasurable feelings, and enters 
largely into all our enjoyments. When success 
attends us in any of our labours or pursuits, we 
do not merely enjoy our present advantages — we 
look forward to the completion of our projects, 
imagining the joy that shall then crown our toils, 
and the rest which shall repay them; or else 
having perfected a structure which we had long 
contemplated as the height of our desires, we now 
2 B 



278 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



regard it but as a foundation for new erections, and 
count what we have accomplished as little com- 
pared with what we may yet succeed in effecting. 
Thus, though everything here is unsatisfying and 
vain, though the heart is continually acknowledg- 
ing itself disappointed in the attainment of what 
it had desired, and though so often its most confi- 
dent expectations remain unfulfilled, yet is there 
always something to interest and excite us ; some 
gay vision, ever dancing before our eyes, some 
aerially-painted summit ever inviting our ascent. 
Kind and compassionate is the appointment of our 
all- wise Creator, who thus at once softens to us the 
pain of disappointments which are indispensable 
in our present state, and, by constantly carrying 
our thoughts beyond the sphere of present things, 
gives something of an elevated and intellectual 
character even to our commonest pleasures. But 
alas ! that the hopes which men too generally 
cherish are so deceitful and unworthy. Alas ! that 
they so seldom distinguish the objects of rational 
desire and pursuit, or dwell with delight on the 
probable attainment of those things which would 
make them most truly happy. Hence it is — 
because a good Providence often in mercy dis- 
appoints expectations the fulfilment of which would 
be our worst misfortune — that Hope is so com- 
monly regarded as a mere deceiver, and that 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 279 

whilst we cannot help listening to her whisper- 
ed tales, and looking through her richly-tinted 
glass, we consider it as the part of Prudence to 
distrust her promises and reject her consolations. 
Could we but set our affections on objects truly 
worthy, and make use of our reason in choosing 
the path by which they are to be approached, we 
should enjoy the pleasures of Hope, but should 
have much less cause to complain of her delusions; 
her voice would still cheer, and her pencil enchant 
us, but we should have no reason to fear her mis- 
leading or betraying us. The hopes which relate 
to this world and its affairs must always be doubt- 
ful, and our security consists in not attaching too 
much importance to them, even whilst we allow 
them to enliven our present path, and animate us 
in the ordinary labours of life. But there are 
hopes, and those most delightful, most soothing, 
most encouraging, which are attended with no 
danger of disappointment ; which consist in realiz- 
ing and beginning already to enjoy the glorious 
certainties of a futurity which religion unveils to 
the eye of faith ; which consist in anticipating the 
manifestations of God's perfections and the results 
of his government from his own promises, or 
from principles which he has enabled us clearly to 
ascertain. These are hopes not painted on a 
bubble which is dissipated by a breath, or fea- 
2 b 2 



280 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



thering in variegated splendour the insect wing 
which a touch lays bare, but rather like the pre- 
cious opal, whose varying lustre shifts and blends 
all the hues of beauty, whilst as we change its 
aspect we only multiply its charms. They rise 
clear and bright, bounding this vale of life like 
distant Alpine summits when morning sunbeams 
irradiate their snowy crowns, elevated above its 
mists, and catching a glorious light from the hea- 
ven towards which they soar. 

The hopes which have no nobler aim than the 
riches, honours, and pleasures of the world ; which 
spring from desires in themselves mistaken, dan- 
gerous, and degrading — may lead us on in vain 
pursuit, and then vanish, or change to appalling 
visions ; but when the mind dwells upon the most 
rational, pure, and ennobling objects, until it can 
determine the means proper for their attainment, 
and can clearly anticipate the happy result ; when, 
amidst external changes and the uncertain or af- 
flictive events of life, it can constantly look for- 
ward to prospects of improvement, and of real and 
enduring bliss — that hope indeed is worthy to be 
cherished, an anchor for the soul amidst the storms 
of time, a compass steadily pointing to the haven 
of eternal peace. 

Let us consider a little in detail the hopes which 
are derived from religion, and which exert their 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



281 



powerful influence in the mind of the sincere and 
intelligent Christian. 

We may place first, the hope he entertains of 
his own improvement, in all the qualities and affec- 
tions which belong to his profession. Accepting 
his religion as the best gift of God, the source of 
the truest happiness to all who really apply it ; and 
aware that its blessings must be proportioned to 
the degree in which it is felt and acted upon, he 
is satisfied with no formal or divided service. It 
is his humble, but sincere and anxious desire, to 
be all that Gospel principles would make him. 
He feels his weakness, he knows the dangers by 
which he is surrounded, he mourns for his frequent 
errors; but he feels, also, that the love of God 
and of virtue is in his heart ; he knows the value 
of that holy faith, through which his master and 
exemplar, though tempted, was without sin — he 
rejoices in the promised mercy of his Heavenly 
Father, and whilst endeavouring to set in the 
fullest light, all the motives to goodness — to open 
within him all the springs of pious and benevolent 
feelings, he cherishes the delightful hope, that he 
shall rise more and more above frailty and passion 
— that he shall increase in strength, and grow in 
nearer approach to that high standard which he 
aspires to reach. To be satisfied with our present 
condition, becomes not the very best of erring 
2 b 3 



282 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



mortals — and is more likely to be the character of 
those who are yet far removed from the excellence 
they might reasonably be expected to attain. The 
more carefully we consider the principles of Chris- 
tianity, the higher will be our conceptions of what 
it is capable of making those who unreservedly 
submit themselves to its influences. The more 
faithfully we study the state of our own hearts, 
the more we shall be convinced how much it 
wants improvement, and the better we shall know 
where our watchfulness and diligence are peculiarly 
required ; thus our hopes will not be the mere 
sport of the imagination, produced by vague de- 
sires, but will be reasonable and well-founded, 
and will occupy so much of our thoughts and in- 
terests, as greatly to contribute to their own ac- 
complishment. Thus, as we pursue our devious 
course amidst outward changes, by us absolutely 
uncontrollable, we shall steadily and cheerfully 
look forward, having one object at least of our 
most anxious care, which may be promoted amidst 
all varieties of our condition, and the prospect of 
success in which may well enable us to bear 
many trials. It is indeed a glorious prospect. 
We feel that we are formed for progressive im- 
provement ; that our minds, the noblest part of 
our nature, invite and will repay our culture. To 
store them with knowledge and wisdom is a most 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



283 



honourable undertaking, and the hope of enlarging 
our acquisitions of this kind is worthy to engage 
and delight reasonable and intelligent creatures: 
but as our moral state has a yet nearer connec- 
tion with our happiness ; and in the government 
of our passions, and the right regulation of our 
affections, is our highest glory, as well as our only 
true and permanent bliss — the hope of adding to 
our virtuous attainments, of purifying our hearts 
and elevating our desires, ought ever to engage our 
warmest interest, and, whilst it calls forth our best 
exertions, should afford us the highest satisfaction. 

Another hope founded on religion, which the 
truly good man must ever cherish with delight, 
relates to the improvement of the moral, intel- 
lectual, and social condition of our fellow-creatures. 
Subject as it is to various evils, the condition of 
man in this world is, upon the whole, a happy and 
desirable state, sufficient to show the wisdom and 
goodness of the Being who placed him here, and to 
establish abundant claims on his gratitude; but we 
cannot bestow upon it much consideration, without 
being convinced that it is capable of great ame- 
lioration. We cannot receive the instructions of 
Divine religion, without perceiving that that ame- 
lioration is intended, and being made aware of the 
means by which it is to be effected. We are 
led to observe the analogy of the growth of an 



284 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



individual, and the gradual development both of 
his physical and intellectual powers with the pro- 
gress of the species. We are made sensible that 
the various dispensations of religion have been 
adapted to the different periods of that progress 
which they were specially designed to promote, and 
that whilst Christianity has already conferred in- 
calculable benefits, nothing is needed but a more 
complete application of its principles and precepts 
to effect all which enlightened philanthropy can 
desire. 

Every good mind must wish that the mostf 
valuable blessings of knowledge could be gene- 
rally diffused ; that education should form our 
youth to habits of virtue ; that tyranny, oppres- 
sion and slavery should be banished from the 
earth; that war should suspend its horrors, and 
that the advantages of civilization and religious 
instruction should be diffused among the nations 
which yet sit in darkness. The enlightened Chris- 
tian not only regards these blessings as objects of 
desire, but also as possible to be promoted by him, 
and as sure to be finally accomplished. He hopes 
all that is good for the destinies of his race. He 
anticipates the time when truth and liberty, when 
peace, justice and charity, shall prevail ; he sees the 
indications of their progress ; he knows the prin- 
ciples which must triumph over many of the evils 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



285 



he laments; he estimates and rejoices in their 
power; and if yet he sees but the brightening 
dawn, he recollects how lately there was but a 
doubtful twilight, how long and deep was the 
night, and how much reason he has to rejoice in a 
prospect now becoming every moment more ra- 
dient with the promise of a glorious day. The 
Christian sees the probability and the means of 
human improvement, and he is also peculiarly 
concerned in the welfare of his fellow-creatures. 
There may be found those who, provided that they 
themselves, and those immediately connected with 
them, are successful in the common pursuits of 
the world, feel themselves in no degree called upon 
to trouble themselves about the concerns of others, 
and would account it extreme folly to make them- 
selves anxious about the prospects of humanity; 
but these are not, in any proper sense, Christians. 
The disciple of Jesus, taught " to love his neigh- 
bour as himself," " to think not only of his own 
things, but of the things of others also," and to 
consider doing good to the extent of his power as 
one of his most essential duties, cannot but inte- 
rest himself in the advantages or evils of the con- 
dition of his brethren, — cannot but grieve for 
their afflictions, and delight himself in their im- 
proving prospects. To him, the hope which paints 
the future triumphs of knowledge, freedom, and 



286 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



virtue, animating him amidst his struggles in their 
glorious cause, is joy indeed ; and well it can re- 
quite his anxieties and sacrifices, well it can sup- 
port him amidst personal disappointments and 
sufferings. Nor will Religion refuse to acknow- 
ledge as her own, a feeling which implies elevation 
above merely selfish views and worldly pursuits, 
and which consists in reliance on the final preva- 
lence of her holy and beneficent influences. 

But we must hasten to another and peculiarly 
interesting class of religious hopes — those which 
relate to future existence and heavenly happiness. 
Life itself is uncertain and transient. All its en- 
joyments, as far as they arise from external things, 
are insecure in their tenure, and apt, in posses- 
sion, to disappoint the expectations they had ex- 
cited ; and no excellence of character, no acquisi- 
tions of knowledge, no energy in useful labours, 
no ardour of benevolent feelings, can delay the 
appointed hour of our departure, or dissipate the 
gloom which hangs around the closing scene. 

Called, as we are by our profession, to sacrifice 
our interests and inclinations in the service of 
truth and goodness, and to expose ourselves to the 
scorn and injuries of the wicked — if in this world 
only we had hope in Christ, our lot would be but 
gloomy and discouraging. Our best privilege is, 
that we can look beyond the changes and sorrows 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



287 



of time, and can confidently anticipate the reward 
of our sincere endeavours to perform our duty, 
the removal of our doubts and difficulties, and the 
joyful termination of all our afflictions, in those 
unclouded regions of light and bliss, which the Gos- 
pel promises make known unto us. Here, though 
we gratefully acknowledge that there is much to 
enjoy, we cannot be insensible to the large share 
of suffering which, in some form, is appointed to 
most of us. Our present condition does not satisfy 
us ; it is but a variable day in which the sunshine 
is interchanged with showers — and in the fairest 
moments there is ever some threatening cloud to 
watch and dread, so that our spirits would sink 
without the prospect of a brighter morrow. 
Through opposition, disappointment, pain, and 
bereavement, at times all suffering in our persons, 
in our selfish interests, and in our friendly and 
social feelings, we all pass to the dark and sad 
termination of our short journey. And how 
blessed, then, is the hope, that the trials of life 
may be used by us as a preparation for the felicity 
of a far nobler existence, that its afflictions are as 
nothing compared with the eternal glory which is 
to follow them ! How enchanting are the visions 
of progressive, but boundless improvement in holi- 
ness, piety, and benevolence — in understanding 
the purposes, and in loving the perfections of the 



288 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



great Source of all good ! How sweetly soothing is 
the prospect of re-union with all the lost objects 
of our affections, where separation is no longer to be 
dreaded, and no shade of sin or sorrow can darken 
our intercourse ! Such are the anticipations which 
the Christian is authorized to entertain. Such 
are the hopes which familiarly present themselves 
to his mind, and whose habitual influence is to be 
traced in his feelings and actions. Let me con- 
clude with a few words on their effects. An obvi- 
ous effect of the hopes inspired by religion, is to 
animate our exertions for the attainment of those 
objects of desire, to which our thoughts are so 
much directed, and which we indulge the expecta- 
tion of some time reaching. Whilst he who is 
persuaded of the utter depravity of his nature, 
and attaches no importance to anything he can 
himself do for his salvation, indolently waits the 
expected influences of Divine grace, the man 
who has learned to aspire after improvement, and 
to believe that his wishes may, by his own efforts, 
be in some degree accomplished, has a constant 
spur to exertion — he sees before him a goal hung 
with the glorious rewards of victory, and he puts 
forth all his strength to prevail in the arduous 
struggle. As he labours up the steep and slippery 
ascent, he feels, at every step, that something is 
accomplished, and sees some point which it may 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 289 

yet be in his power to reach ; so that he is ever 
advancing towards perfection, and hoping, that 
through the holy principles and powerful motives 
of his Divine religion, he may ultimately attain 
unto it, in that sense in which it may belong to 
his nature. In like manner, it is vain to expect 
energetic labours in the great cause of humanity, 
but from those who believe that they can effectually 
contribute to its advancement. If we think that 
the world is never intended to be better than it is 
— if we even fear that it is growing worse, our 
exertions seem thrown away, our spirits sink, and 
we are unwilling to waste, in a hopeless contest, 
powers which may, at least, be applied to promote 
our personal comfort. The powerful opponent of 
all the evils which afflict mankind, is the man who 
hopes that their amount may be materially di- 
minished. The active, zealous friend of truth, of 
freedom, of knowledge, is he who believes that 
they must prevail ; to whose mind the fair pros- 
pect of that happy state, which their influences 
must produce, is familiar, not as a mere dream of 
fancy, but as a vista through the clouds which veil 
futurity — as the sure result of those benevolent 
labours to which he is devoting his best powers, 
and to whom the personal sacrifices so often re- 
quired are overbalanced and turned to pleasure, by 
the conviction that they cannot be made in vain» 
2 c 



290 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



And thus it is, also, that delightful anticipations 
of heavenly bliss cheer us under those wisely-ap- 
pointed trials, which would otherwise almost over- 
whelm us ; thus it is, that even amidst the agony 
of the parting scene, the certainty of speedy re- 
union with the objects of our virtuous affections is 
a balm to our lacerated feelings — and that those 
who are lost on earth, being considered not as 
torn from us for ever, but as gone before us to 
that state on which all our best hopes are fixed — 
retain their place in our thoughts and affections, 
and seem to exert a powerful influence in preparing 
us to join them in their blissful abodes. The 
hopes of the Christian render him superior to the 
sufferings and sorrows he is ordained to bear, 
since they interest him for others, and for himself, 
in something more important than the passing 
scene, and carry him forward from pain and dis- 
appointment to the sure accomplishment of his 
best and holiest desires. 

It is a very valuable effect of Christian hope 
upon the character, that by engaging our lively 
interest in those objects which are most worthy to 
occupy us, and accustoming us to the contempla- 
tion of prospects truly grand and beautiful, it 
counteracts the influence of those inferior and 
grovelling pursuits, which are so apt to acquire 
importance in our eyes ; we cannot have the hopes 



CHRISTIAN HOPE. 



291 



which belong to the Christian character, and yet 
be deceived by the claims of sensual pleasure, or 
wealth, or worldly ambition, to be leading objects 
of our desires. 

We cannot dwell on those anticipations of merely 
selfish enjoyment and external beauty, which these 
pursuits hold out to us — whilst we can turn to 
prospects which delightfully exercise all the noblest 
powers of the mind, and which embrace the hap- 
piness of all our fellow-creatures. We cannot rest 
in the fancied goods of this uncertain state, whilst 
heaven and eternity open to us their bright scenes, 
and make our onward path to glow with their re- 
flected radiance. 

Thus our minds are refined and spiritualized — 
we are rendered insensible to the temptations of 
mere outward and present things, which might 
otherwise overpower our virtue, and we are pre- 
pared for the happiness which we so earnestly de- 
sire, and so eagerly anticipate, though we can here 
form no worthy estimate of its nature or amount. 



2 c 2 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 



Hebrews v. 14. 

" Those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern 
both good and evil." 

I propose at once to separate these words from 
the argument of the writer to the Hebrews, and 
employ them as an introduction to some observa- 
tions on the nature of conscience, and the import- 
ance of forming and cultivating a quick sense of 
moral good and evil, which seem to me well de- 
serving of our serious attention. 

In opposition to many moralists, I must begin 
by laying it down as a truth, immediately leading 
to valuable practical results, that the inward feel- 
ing of pleasure and self-approbation at what is 
good in our conduct, and of dissatisfaction, self- 
reproach, and remorse at what is evil, which we 
call conscience, is not born with us, or a fixed part 
of our nature, entitled to be accounted the voice 
of God within us, but is altogether produced by 
the operation of circumstance, habit, and educa- 
tion, on the simple elements of our intellectual 
and moral being. 

2 c 3 



294 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

We hear from some a great deal about what 
they call the moral sense, which they conceive of 
as an original innate power of distinguishing be- 
tween virtue and vice, with a disposition to ap- 
prove the one and blame the other — so that a 
man has but to follow the dictates of nature and 
conscience, and he must act rightly. He always 
has an inward warning to his duty : he has but to 
listen to and obey the silent monitor, and he can- 
not err. This system is, to be sure, sufficiently 
removed from that which represents man as natu- 
rally disposed to evil, and averse from all good 
(though, strange to say, they appear to have been 
maintained in conjunction) ; but it might be diffi- 
cult to decide which of the two is most opposed to 
fact and experience; and if the one claim pre- 
eminence in evil tendency, the other seems to me 
very far from the praise of judiciously encouraging 
and promoting what is good. 

If we have within us any natural perception of 
the beauty of virtue and the odiousness of vice ; 
if conscience really possess the power often attri- 
buted to it, of absolutely directing us to our duty, 
I would inquire how it happens that different 
individuals, equally obedient to the dictates of 
conscience, equally under the guidance of their 
moral sense, have come to opposite conclusions 
on very important points of practical morality ? 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 295 



There unquestionably exists, in society at large, 
a general disposition to approve virtue and con- 
demn vice, which has been found, with certain 
considerable modifications, in all ages and in all 
countries, being accounted for by the similarity 
in the constitution and general circumstances of 
human beings j and the appearance of this sense 
of right and wrong at a very early age, which is 
really the consequence of the position in which we 
are placed in respect to those older than us, and 
of what we hear and see around us, has caused it 
to be hastily ascribed to instinct. But the objec- 
tion we have stated is fatal to this doctrine. Did 
any such thing exist as an instinctive and innate 
moral sense, it must necessarily be universal and 
uniform; but the contrary we know to be the 
fact. How differently do the consciences of well- 
meaning, and, on the whole, virtuous men, decide 
on some points ! The moral sense of whole nations 
has approved of the exposure of infants, of poly- 
gamy, of concubinage, incest, and slavery; and 
the moral sense of all nations, taken as general 
bodies, yet approves of war, an evil as much op- 
posed to the spirit of true religion, and enlightened 
benevolence, as any we have mentioned — one 
which, we trust to the Providence of God and the 
power of the Gospel, that future ages will avoid 
and detest. The very dictates of conscience have, 



296 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

in innumerable instances, led to acts of cruelty 
and injustice ; and that which is called the voice 
of God has forced men, against their better feel- 
ings, to sacrifice their brethren at the shrine of 
bigotry. 

I know it is said that cases such as these mani- 
fest the recognition of duty, and the tendency to 
a moral estimate of actions, whilst the error be- 
longs to a weak understanding, or to an early 
perversion of the natural sentiments : but if, by 
instinctive moral sentiments no more be meant 
than those which are most suitable to the nature 
of man, and are developed in him in the most 
favourable circumstances, being intended by his 
Maker to be thus called forth — this is no more 
than we all believe, and the apparent difference 
arises from an improper use of words ; and if more 
be intended, I cannot understand the utility, or 
even the meaning, of an instinct which is con- 
stantly liable to be perverted, and which, in prac- 
tice, affords no sure guidance. 

Again, it seems to me that if the moral sense 
were really instinctive, and of course universal, 
there could scarcely be thought to be any need of 
a further revelation of God's will to his creatures ; 
it might, at least, occur to us that he might as 
well have given all that was required at once and 
by one method, and no answer could be given to 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 297 

that objection to revealed religion, which asserts 
that all its useful and valuable doctrines were 
universally known before its appearance, and are 
implanted in us by nature. But we need fear no 
objection of this kind, for we learn, from a careful 
study of the constitution of our own minds, that 
it is " by use men have their senses exercised to 
discern both good and evil and we cannot fail 
to observe the great importance of religion for 
correcting, strengthening, and elevating that sense 
of right and wrong, which is produced more or 
less clearly, in all nations, by the common cir- 
cumstances of mankind. 

It is by use that the mariner observes the dis- 
tant sail, whilst as yet beyond the reach of un- 
practised sight : by use the naturalist perceives 
the minute objects of his pursuit, which escape 
the notice of others, and admires the beauties 
which they see not : by use the farmer views the 
changes of the weather in the face of the morning 
or the evening sky : the mechanic performs with 
speed and certainty the intricate operations of his 
art ; and the rapid finger of the musician flies over 
the notes, calling forth, with magic touch, all the 
powers of harmony. Nor are the effects of habit 
less certain or less evident with respect to the 
powers and dispositions of the mind. The more 
our faculties are exercised, the more their capacity 



298 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

is enlarged ; the more frequently we apply and act 
upon any principles, whether good or bad, which 
we may have adopted, the more fixed do they 
become, and the stronger is their influence over 
us ; and the more any dispositions or affections, 
whether virtuous or vicious, are drawn out and 
exercised by circumstances, the more powerful and 
permanent do they become. Nor is this all ; for, 
though physical causes undoubtedly incline dif- 
ferent minds to various qualities and pursuits, as 
they occasion a difference in sensual propensities, 
and we are in our bodily structure so far different 
that, under the same circumstances, we should not 
all act and think alike, yet the great majority of 
our habits and dispositions, and uniformly those 
upon which the excellence of the character, and 
the happiness of the individual, depend, are the 
result of education, and the circumstances of our 
situation . 

Although a little reflection must make it plain 
that the causes, even of single actions, are usually 
too various and complicated to be all distinctly 
perceived, and that the sources of dispositions and 
affections must be much more difficult to be fully 
ascertained, yet, in a great proportion of cases, we 
can trace the leading points, whether good or 
bad, in men's characters, to the effects of educa- 
tion and circumstances. With what certainty, for 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 299 

instance, if we are acquainted with the history of 
their lives, can we refer to the example or influ- 
ence of parents and friends, or to some conspicuous 
early events occurring to them, or peculiarities in 
their position — the piety, the love of truth, the 
avarice, or any other virtue or vice which is un- 
equivocal, and may not, in a great measure, pro- 
ceed from constitutional causes, which we may 
observe in men's characters. This is one impor- 
tant use of Biography. Since the same circum- 
stances, and the same means, must always have 
the same tendency, and produce the same general 
results, we learn, from the lives both of good and 
wicked men, what situations are to be considered 
as peculiarly dangerous, and what have been 
found, by experience, the most efficacious means 
of virtue. 

If we endeavour to analyse, and trace to its 
sources, any one of those qualities which are ac- 
counted virtuous, and which have been generally 
approved as such in all parts of the world, we may 
readily see it not to be simple, original, and innate, 
but the effect of a class of circumstances which 
has occurred very similarly in all ages and all 
nations, and to arise from several causes blended 
together. Let us take, as an example, the filial 
affection. Those who have been properly brought 
up, can never remember the time when they did 



300 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

not esteem it a duty to honour and love their pa- 
rents ; and all the tribes of men, in every different 
period of the world, have accounted this a virtue. 
Hence, certain moral philosophers would tell us, 
that we have a natural approbation of this virtue ; 
that we feel within us a call to it ; that a love of 
it is born with us — and, in short, that the true 
reason why we ought to cultivate it is, because we 
are prompted to it by conscience. What, then, is 
to be said of those — for such, undoubtedly, there 
are — who have never known this virtue; never 
felt any approbation of it, and never been re- 
proached by conscience for the neglect of it ? But 
let us consider the case a little more carefully. 
"What we understand by filial affection is described 
when we say, that it is made up of love, gratitude, 
and fear, or reverence. The concurrent existence 
of these emotions, in different degrees and propor- 
tions, according to different cases, would fully 
account for the phenomena. But love itself means 
the simple emotion that arises from the actual per- 
ception of pleasure, so associated with a particular 
object or individual that has frequently excited it, 
as to be very readily called up by the appearance, 
the name, or any recollection of that object or 
person. Gratitude is the name we employ to ex- 
press the same simple, pleasing emotion, being 
strongly excited in connection with specific benefits 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 301 

received from an intelligent agent,, it being gene- 
rally included in the notion, that a corresponding 
desire exists, of conferring pleasure on the object 
of our gratitude. Fear is the simple emotion 
arising from the perception of pain, associated 
with an object which has caused restraint, disap- 
pointment, or suffering of any kind ; and the word 
reverence only means a certain amount of fear 
mingled with admiration and confidence. After 
this explanation, it must surely be abundantly 
evident, that filial affection is a complex, not a 
simple feeling — that its elements are variously 
mixed in different cases, and that the absence 
of anything deserving the name, in some cases, 
is very intelligible. It must, I think, be also 
clearly perceived, that it is an acquired, not an 
innate feeling. Love, by its very nature, cannot 
exist until the same object has repeatedly been 
a cause of pleasure. All those permanent states, 
or tendencies of feeling, entering into the cha- 
racter, which we call affections, result from the 
frequent excitement of particular emotions. The 
very name of gratitude implies the consciousness 
of benefits conferred, and fear can only be under- 
stood as the effect of the sense of superior power, 
and of instances of restraint, privation, and even 
the infliction of suffering, united with the prepon- 
derating amount of kindness and fondness. The 
2d 



302 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

necessarily dependent state of children, the love 
which they call forth, and which is so abundantly 
exercised towards them, and the restraints or 
inflictions which the convenience or the tem- 
per of parents, and a regard to their own good, 
causes them to suffer, must create the mingled 
feelings which constitute filial affection, and supply 
the complete explanation of it, although, on a 
hasty view, it might appear a simple and distinct 
feeling — and since its sources are common to most 
human beings, we cannot wonder at its being 
almost universally felt. Now, in respect to what 
may be called its moral character, it must be ob- 
served, that the manifestations of this affection 
are encouraged, received with evident pleasure, 
and warmly returned, and that the child learns 
from the first dawn of reason, by means of expres- 
sions or signs of approbation, to connect with 
them the idea of right. In the same way, the 
notion of wrong is associated with the contrary 
conduct. The lesson is learned before that period 
to which our memories can go back — and, there- 
fore, we seem to ourselves to have derived it from 
nature. We have no recollection of the time 
when disobedience to our parents did not occasion 
us the painful feelings of a reproving conscience ; 
therefore, we are ready to imagine that such a 
time never was, and falsely assume that principles 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 303 

are innate, the origin of which is lost to us, though 
a little cautious examination might enable us 
to see their formation in others. Such is a sketch 
of the history of one of those feelings which unite 
to make up what is called the moral sense. Some 
of them may be more easily analysed; and the 
general result, I think, would be, that none of 
them has any other origin than in education and 
circumstances. 

Having thus attempted to establish the prin- 
ciples that conscience and the sense of right and 
wrong are not inherent and unchangeable parts of 
our nature, but produced by instruction and ex- 
perience acting on our external condition, and 
strengthened by reflection, observation, the disci- 
pline of life, and above all by practice, I proceed to 
observe as a consequence, that according to the 
manner in which they have been brought up, and 
the situation in which they have been placed, dif- 
ferent individuals have their sense of moral good 
and evil cultivated to very different degrees, and 
in proportion with its acuteness and correctness 
will be the probability of their acting rightly 
in circumstances of difficulty and trial. Hence 
the importance to all of having a correct moral 
taste, early formed by education, and refined 
and strengthened by mature reflection, by the 
diligent and frequent consideration of the pre- 
2 d 2 



304 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

cepts of religion, and by the habit of constantly- 
acting in conformity with its dictates. 

The perfection of the moral sense consists in its 
leading us to approve of those actions and affec- 
tions only, which tend to our real and ultimate 
happiness ; but it may be misled by education or 
by the error of our own judgment. It often is 
misled, so as to sanction what is wrong : we have 
therefore no infallible internal guide, and must 
never think our sense of right and wrong too 
strong or too clear to be improved. 

From these considerations we plainly see the 
duty of endeavouring to cultivate and enlighten 
the moral sense, both in ourselves and others, so 
that the dictates of conscience may be founded in 
reason, and may tend to good. If we content 
ourselves with what we have received from educa- 
tion, we may retain pernicious errors as principles 
of action, whereas by diligently directing our 
attention to moral subjects, and applying ourselves 
to the best source of information, the Holy Scrip- 
tures, we may gradually have our senses exercised 
to a better discernment between good and evil, 
and may in many important particulars improve 
our moral perceptions. We have the power of 
serving others in the same manner, by communi- 
cating the truths we consider ourselves as having 
discovered, and we are bound to do so by the law 



i 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 305 

of benevolence. Nor is it sufficient for us to en- 
deavour to acquire and diffuse correct notions of 
what is right ; for in informing the mind, and di- 
recting the judgment, we only lay a good founda- 
tion. It is only by diligent examination of the 
motives and quality of our actions, and long con- 
tinued practice, carefully conformed to our prin- 
ciples, that a moral sensibility is formed, which 
may be safely trusted to as a rule of life — which 
will instantaneously recognize and admire what is 
good — detest and abhor what is evil. To have the 
mental senses thus trained by practice to the ready 
and accurate distinction of moral good and evil, 
without a continual reference to principles, is the 
perfection of virtue, and is the happiness and 
reward of the advanced Christian. It is indeed 
only he who has long been endeavouring to im- 
bibe the purest principles of morals, and has care- 
fully studied to regulate his actions in conformity 
with them, who can with safety trust to his moral 
sense, as a sufficient guide for his conduct : never- 
theless that moral sense which is common nearly 
to all, because it is the effect of circumstances, in 
which most of our race partake, that especially 
which may be expected to prevail in countries 
where Christianity is known, and where it has 
influenced in some degree, however imperfectly, 
public opinion, must be considered as highly 

2 d 3 



306 THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 

favourable to virtue, and as a useful guide to the 
conduct. Only he who desires to adorn his Chris- 
tian profession must by no means rest satisfied 
with it, but must adopt proper means to correct, 
refine, and strengthen it. 

In conclusion, the principles we have laid down, 
lead us to a very striking view of the importance 
of a pious and virtuous education. That moral 
sensibility which should lead us through life to 
reject evil and approve of what is good, begins to 
be formed in early childhood, by the instructions 
we receive, and still more by our observations on 
the conduct and sentiments of those around us. 
It is made up of a variety of judgments respecting 
the tendency of certain lines of conduct to pro- 
cure us, at first, the esteem of others, and in its 
most perfect state, the approbation of God and 
our own real happiness. 

These judgments or opinions respecting the ex- 
cellence of different modes of acting are in child- 
hood taken almost exclusively from parental autho- 
rity, and from what we perceive to be thought by 
those older than ourselves. If then parents are not 
careful both themselves to act and speak in ac- 
cordance with the rules of virtue and the senti- 
ments of honour and religion, and to guard their 
children from all corrupting influences proceeding 
from others, they run a most serious risk of having 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 307 

the consciences of their children misled and their 
moral taste perverted. Whilst by a caution and 
diligence such as the importance of the object 
requires, it is in their power to form the tender 
mind to a love of all that is excellent, and a dis- 
taste for whatever is evil in its character. Those 
who at first only condemn actions and principles 
as wrong, because they have always heard them 
condemned and seen them avoided by those whom 
they love and honour, will gradually " by use have 
their senses exercised to discern " for themselves 
"both good and evil;" will become familiar with 
their properties, and come to value or dislike 
them from their own clear perceptions of the ad- 
vantage of the one and the bad results of the 
other; whilst children whose moral feelings have 
been trusted to as instinctive, or left to be formed 
by the accidental influences of circumstances, will 
at best draw them only from popular sentiment, 
and can rise no higher than the average morality 
of the world — very probably may derive them from 
wicked and depraved characters with whom they 
may associate. If parents desire for their children 
a really superior character, they must take care 
that the first impressions may be favourable to 
virtue, that the first habits and affections formed 
may be good and amiable ; they will then hardly 



308 



THE EDUCATION OF CONSCIENCE. 



be disappointed in seeing their children lovers of 
goodness, nice in discriminating, and steady in 
practising what is right. 



THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMA- 
NENT IN CHRISTIANITY. 



Hebrews xiii. 8. 
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 

These, in which we live, are spirit-stirring and 
mind-awakening times ; men are no longer content 
to abide by the old land-marks, to receive the sen- 
timents as contentedly as they do the properties 
of their forefathers, or to listen to the cry of alarm 
with which their interested shepherds would deter 
them from wandering beyond the permitted pas- 
tures and prescribed boundaries of thought. Every 
thing is examined, every opinion finds a defender, 
and some bold adventurer is ever ready to attack 
what has been held most venerable and sacred, or 
to raise up some new edifice of speculation, which 
often turns out to be but the wood, hay, and 
stubble of human weakness. 

Certainly, however, this state of things must 
have a tendency to promote the diffusion of truth, 
which can only advance by inquiry, and which is 



310 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

finally to prevail by overcoming in a fair contest 
all the powers of error and darkness. 

The state really to be dreaded is that in which 
all is calm and silent; in which an established 
creed is either submissively and blindly believed, 
or professed amidst concealed unbelief and the 
entire absence of all guiding principle. 

When we know rightly we can act wisely, and 
the more freedom there is of examination, the 
better is our chance of obtaining knowledge. We 
ought not then to be alarmed or displeased at 
variety of sentiment, or to encourage any unkind 
or disdainful feelings towards those who differ 
from us most widely ; but we ought to be excited 
to deliberate and cautious investigation, resolving 
that we will neither ignorantly and stupidly tread 
the old ways, nor allow ourselves to be drawn 
aside into new paths without careful consideration 
and satisfactory assurance that we are changing 
for the better. 

In the present day, though the profession of 
Christianity is so general as almost to seem a 
matter of course, we can by no means judge from 
its extent of the number of those who have really 
weighed the evidences of divine religion and em- 
braced its truths from conviction, as the proper 
guides of their lives. Many we are sure only 
receive what circumstances have caused to be 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



311 



taught them, and those who think most are apt to 
give the reins to fancy instead of following the 
leadings of evidence. 

We stand in the midst of an extraordinary 
variety of opinion. Christianity must be to us 
very vague and ill-defined, unless we will take 
pains to settle what it is, and what claims it has 
upon us. 

Are all matters of opinion indifferent ? Is Chris- 
tianity intended to present itself, like the cha- 
meleon, in ever-changing colours, adapting itself 
to the tastes and intellects of different classes of 
professors? Is there an unchanging creed, the 
adoption of which is absolutely necessary, or is 
the religion to take its tone from the age, and be 
moulded anew by every aspiring innovator who 
adds or lays aside according to his notions of 
human wants ? 

These questions demand our attention. The 
Christian minister is bound to give his best assist- 
ance towards their satisfactory solution, but if he 
rightly estimates his own position he will do so in 
the spirit of investigation, not of dictation. If we 
would well understand the religion of Jesus Christ 
we must study its records. There is no rival au- 
thority in any existing man or body of men, in 
any ecclesiastical or civil rulers, in any writings of 
a later although still a remote age, or in any tra- 



312 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

ditions, which might at least have originated in 
fraud or superstition. Rational Christianity is 
based on the right of private judgment and the 
sufficiency of the Scriptures. These principles I 
pretend not to prove : I may on this occasion 
safely assume them, but they also are liable to be 
abused, and must be properly guarded. No doubt 
their adoption in a certain sense has caused the 
sectarian division of Protestantism and the fana- 
tical excesses into which many have been betrayed. 
Add, however, the cautions, that immediate Di- 
vine guidance is not, in these days, to be sup- 
posed j that our right is not a right to adopt any 
fancy of our own, but to use our best judgment in 
ascertaining the meaning of the sacred records; 
that in all cases they have a definite meaning, 
which may be determined, more or less certainly, 
by a regard to fixed and well-established rules of 
interpretation ; and that our business is to put our- 
selves in the situation of the original writers and 
readers, so as to ascertain the true meaning, in 
order to make application of the principles to our 
altered circumstances, — not to take every sentence 
as addressed to ourselves, and bearing on our 
modern controversies. 

With due attention to these just and reasonable 
laws, it must be manifest to every one that the 
tendency of inquiry must be to discover the actual 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



313 



truth, and that, consequently, though the principle 
of private judgment may at first seem only to 
cause that multiplicity of sects which is the re- 
proach of Protestantism, it must, by further and 
better application, produce approximation of opi- 
nion and ultimate agreement on the most im- 
portant points. 

If Christianity be true — and if not, disinterested 
inquiry will show us the failure of its evidence, 
and justify our rejection of its authority — if it be 
true, the exercise of reason and thought must 
cause it to be gradually better understood and 
better applied, and as a consequence must lead to 
its wider diffusion in the world. This is a part of 
its nature and of the plan of Providence respecting 
its influences. When it was given, it was capable 
of producing most important effects, but not all 
its designed effects. It is a progressive system, 
and the declaration of our text, so strikingly ex- 
pressive of permanence, is in no degree opposed 
to this idea. Let us dwell a little on those views 
of our religion in which we must recognise, and 
shall find it important to attend to, its progressive 
character, that we may thereby the better perceive 
to what the quality of permanence belongs, and 
how the consideration of it should affect our 
minds. I will first refer to the gradual influence 
of Gospel principles on individual Christians. Who 
2 E 



314 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

does not perceive that the way in which we are to 
receive the benefit of religion is by a constant 
growth in religious knowledge in all Christian 
graces, and in whatever belongs to the spirit of 
our holy faith ? We could not fall into a much 
more dangerous error than to suppose that having 
once become disciples of Jesus, and regularly per- 
forming certain duties as such, we may rest satis- 
fied with our condition, and account ourselves 
safe without efforts to improve it. We are too 
frail and weak not to need daily efforts to restrain 
our evil propensities and correct our faults, yet 
we cannot honestly devote ourselves to this im- 
portant work, without feeling that by the blessing 
of God on our sincere endeavours and on the 
varied discipline of life, we are advancing towards 
the mark — improving continually in the qualities 
which become our profession. 

Our powers are too feeble and limited for any 
of us to pretend at once to discern all the beauty 
and excellence of the holy doctrine we receive. 
We know that we must study it more and more, 
that a rational faith may be confirmed, that mis- 
takes may be corrected, more enlarged views ob- 
tained, and new truths brought to light. 

The true Christian is ever, as the sacred poet 
represents the pilgrims passing through scenes 
of desolation in going up to worship God in 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



315 



his temple, " going on from strength to strength." 
He proceeds with increasing light and vigour, he 
ever aims at higher attainments. He climbs a 
hill, he fights a battle, he runs a race, he tills the 
ground for a future harvest, he seeks a better 
country, even an heavenly, and whilst he remains 
here, he refuses to be satisfied with what he knows, 
what he is or what he has done ; for his business in 
this world is to prepare himself by constant im- 
provement for a better state to come. 

And does not this progressive character belong 
as strikingly to the effects produced by Chris- 
tianity on human society ? It was one purpose of 
the Mission of Christ to bring to an end the tem- 
porary and limited dispensation of Judaism ; to 
spiritualize religion, and give it a higher power, a 
more effectual sanction, and a wider extension. 
Yet Jesus lived and died a Jew, an observer of the 
Mosaic Law, and recommending to his disciples to 
attend to its requisitions, though not to the neglect 
of better things. Christianity was soon, and by the 
inevitable operation of its precepts, to put an end 
to Slavery within the immediate sphere of its influ- 
ence, yet it recognised it as an existing institution, 
and taught the duty of obedience to masters. The 
Gospel spirit is one of the purest and most gene- 
rous freedom. It justifies as it tends to produce 
every rational improvement in Government and 
3 e % 



316 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

social institutions, since they all are founded in 
the sense of human brotherhood, and the desire 
to promote diffused happiness ; yet Christ and his 
Apostles obeyed and taught others to obey the 
government under which they lived, suffered pa- 
tiently injuries for which there was no legal re- 
medy, and trusted to the progress of better prin- 
ciples for a gradual improvement in what is so 
important to the interests of humanity. War is 
essentially Anti-Christian ; nothing can be more 
opposed to our Lord's precepts and spirit, nothing 
can be more strikingly at variance with everything 
that should distinguish his followers. Yet the 
military profession is not in the Gospel denounced 
as unlawful, nor is any other opposition raised to 
an evil inevitable in those times than by quietly 
but decisively laying down principles with the 
application of which war could not subsist. 

The Gospel is glad tidings of great joy for all 
nations, yet it has hitherto made itself heard but 
by a limited portion of the human race, and even 
to them it could not have extended, had not a veil 
of corruptions prevented their being dazzled and 
repulsed by the splendour of its purity. Chris- 
tianity has produced its best effects gradually, and 
if it be indeed a divine religion, it has greater and 
far better things yet to accomplish for the chil- 
dren of men. 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



317 



According to this view of our religion, many of 
its beauties and some of its most sublime and 
ennobling truths have been partially concealed by 
a morning mist of error rising from the soil of 
human imperfection, and gradually to be dissi- 
pated before the strengthening rays of the Sun of 
Righteousness. A true perception of the plan of 
Providence should prepare and reconcile us to see 
what we deem error prevailing for a time, whilst 
it should encourage our confident expectation of 
the ultimate triumph of truth, and call forth our 
best exertions in a spirit of pious and benevolent 
zeal to promote it. 

One other view of the progressive character of 
our religion must not be omitted. It is no dry 
system of truths to be implicitly believed, but an 
intellectual and spiritual faith, which, though it 
resists every destructive influence, when submitted 
in the crucible of a strong mind to the furnace- 
flame of earnest thought, gives forth valuable pro- 
ducts, which had not previously been detected. 
The written word does not convey to us the whole 
of Christianity : the meditations of the good and 
wise will draw forth subjects for admiration and 
reflection previously unknown. There are doc- 
trines capable of satisfying, improving, and con- 
soling the best minds, which form no part of the 
direct teachings of Christ or his immediate fol- 
2 e 3 



318 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

lowers, but which may, by the application of 
reason, be derived from the unquestionable teach- 
ings of the New Testament, with a clearness and 
certainty that render them truly important and 
edifying. We are not to receive Christianity as 
giving us, in its actual records, all the information 
on religious subjects which we are capable of pos- 
sessing, or ought to desire, but as affording us 
materials, by the proper use of which we may 
erect for ourselves a beautiful structure of truth 
and Divine knowledge, as the home of our souls, 
cherishing our best affections, and educating us 
for the heaven to which our hopes are directed. 

It is at least very doubtful whether anything 
merely external in Christianity has a fixed and 
permanent character. Forms of worship may 
differ in different places and periods. Ceremonies 
may be deemed useful for a time, and may be 
changed, or pass away. Churches, like empires, 
may rise and fall, but the spirit of the Gospel may 
remain ; poured forth like a stream from a foun- 
tain, it may enliven itself, by its contests with the 
obstacles it encounters, deposit, in its later course, 
the impurities it had taken up, and at length roll 
along calmly and brightly, to refresh and fertilize 
the world, and develop all the germs of good which 
the Almighty hand has implanted in the nature 
of man. 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



319 



Thus we perceive in what manner, and to what 
extent, a Divine religion may be progressive and 
changeable in its character, and we find it in no 
degree the less true, that " Jesus Christ " — his 
doctrine, the system which, in his Father's name, 
he established — "is the same yesterday, to-day, 
and for ever." 

It is the same, for what is once true must be so 
always. If Jesus was authorized by God, and 
delivered what he in an extraordinary manner re- 
ceived from Him, proving his claim to authority 
" by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did 
by him," in the presence of many people, then 
the truth of Christianity is a fact over which the 
revolutions of time have no power. A blessing 
has been conferred upon the world ; its evidence 
has been exhibited and duly recorded, and no 
changing opinions or feelings of the generations 
of mortals can erase the events from the roll of 
time, or detract from their claims on our respect- 
ful attention. Recorded evidence, possessing in 
itself the essential marks of goodness, loses nothing 
of its value by the transmission of the record. 
We are always willing to examine the questions 
whether the books of Scripture come to us with 
sufficient proofs of antiquity and genuineness, and 
whether it sufficiently appears, from the nature of 
the documents, that their contents are worthy of 



320 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

credence. Assuming, as we must be permitted 
here to do, the affirmative, neither the progress of 
time, nor the different tastes and self-imagined 
wants of individuals, make any alteration in the 
state of the question. It is not for us to judge 
God's method of dealing, but to endeavour to un- 
derstand it well, that we may humbly accept and 
profit by it. The same laws of evidence, founded 
in the constitution of our minds, are good for all 
time. "We strive to know them, and steadily and 
faithfully to apply them. There is nothing incon- 
ceivable in our finding out, that a long-cherished 
belief is inconsistent with them. As fallible mor- 
tals, we can but abandon error when we discover 
it. But the theory that the alleged evidence of 
Divine revelation was good for its age, and was 
employed by God to convince the first believers, 
but is not good for more enlightened times, and 
has now lost all its force, is a theory so entirely 
irreconcileable with just views, both of human na- 
ture and of Divine Providence, that it is needless 
to enlarge on its condemnation. 

No doubt the errors, weaknesses, and even 
crimes of men are made by our Almighty Ruler, 
instruments for promoting his purposes, but they 
are not directly and in an extraordinary way sanc- 
tioned by him. That which is properly meant by 
Revelation, and to which, if words have any mean- 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



321 



ing, Christ and his apostles laid claim, offering 
what they alleged as sufficient proofs, which now 
remain for our consideration, must be either true 
or false, — and if the latter, no mixture of good we 
may perceive in it ought to secure for it our 
respect. But we believe it true, and in doing so 
we believe it unchangeable, " the same yesterday, 
to-day, and for ever." 

Again, the distinguishing doctrines and charac- 
teristic features of Christianity admit of no change 
with the progress of time. They may be applied 
under different circumstances, and more or less 
completely ; they must be viewed by different in- 
dividuals in different lights; they may be more 
fully traced out into their consequences, and made 
to yield new, and, in some particulars, unexpected 
results ; but the essential principles remain always 
the same. The religion preserves its identity and 
its characteristic qualities. It is fitted to produce 
the same spirit now which it produced in its earliest 
days. Never has the spirit of the world risen up 
to persecute it, but it has offered its array of mar- 
tyrs and confessors; never has it ceased to send 
forth its preachers ready to face all difficulties, 
and make all sacrifices, that they might recom- 
mend its doctrines ; never has it failed to exercise 
a gentle and humanizing influence on society, to 
strengthen the soul against temptation, to soothe 



322 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT 

the sorrows of the mourner, and to point the hopes 
of frail and dying man to heaven and eternity. 
The world will grow better, for Christianity will 
be better understood and more thoroughly felt, 
but the religion does not change, it only gradually 
works its way into the minds and hearts of men, 
thus carrying onward its own destined work by 
its own inherent power. Christianity is holiness 
and love, sincerity, purity, piety, and heavenly 
hope. It is seen in the life and teachings of Jesus, 
it breathes in the letters of his chosen friends, 
and whilst these things are known, it suffers no 
change. 

The world was intended to advance and im- 
prove. All the dispensations of Divine religion 
claim to have been the means of that advance- 
ment. The earlier ones were dispensations for 
children : they were necessarily carnal, and there- 
fore temporary. Christianity is purely spiritual, 
and therefore independent of changes in manners, 
arts, laws, and degrees of knowledge. To what is 
evil it is always an antagonist power. Every thing 
that is good is but the fuller application of its 
principles. We can desire nothing for man which, 
in perceiving it to be good, we do not also per- 
ceive to belong to Christianity. It goes on slowly 
diffusing its influences, and all the flowers of hope 
and joy spring up in its path as the roses bloomed 



IN CHRISTIANITY. 



323 



before the fabled goddess of the spring. Christian 
faith is the noblest principle of human action — 
the living fountain of pure affections, beneficent 
exertions, and high aspirations — it is the strength 
of our souls during the days of our earthly pil- 
grimage — it is our guide to the mansions of bliss 
of which it gives us the assurance. And ages may 
roll on in their course of improvement. The early 
dawn, which we now hail, of truth and freedom 
and love, may brighten into the full day, and 
more than all that our hopes anticipate may be 
realised for future generations of men. Still, 
higher intellect and purer minds will acknow- 
ledge with grateful joy Jesus Christ as the teacher 
and example of holiness, the leader and perfec- 
ter of faith. Still, his Gospel will give the prin- 
ciples of virtue and the inspiration of benevo- 
lence, and his promise and resurrection will enable 
mortals to triumph over death. Still, every new 
blessing will be felt to be a fresh development of 
Christian morals, and if war has then ceased to 
desolate the globe, — if commerce diffuses its bless- 
ings unrestricted by a blind and miscalculating 
selfishness, — if labour moderates its demands on 
the time, and is honoured in its happy sons, — if 
freedom smiles around, and tyranny and corrup- 
tion are no longer known, — if no claim is any 
more heard to property in a brother's blood and 



324 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERMANENT, ETC. 

sinews, and difference of colour or feature is not 
thought to take away the privilege of humanity, — 
if virtue forms the mind, conscience controls the 
baser passions, knowledge employs and improves 
the powers, and human society rises above what 
now we dare even to hope, — all this can be only 
because Christianity shall then be more believed, 
understood, and practised, than it has yet been — 
because the reign of the Prince of Peace shall be 
established, and the same religion which we honour 
and love shall be diffused in its purity and power 
amongst those who then occupy this earthly scene. 

In the day of its highest and widest influence, 
Christianity will be the same as before it had passed 
the narrow limits of Judea ; and when its true dis- 
ciples from all nations, kindreds, and tongues, 
meet in their Father's house above, they will unite 
in a purer expression of grateful praise unto Him 
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, 
on account of those very truths and influences 
which now cheer and animate us in our struggles 
with temptation and evil, and bless us with glorious 
hopes for the race of man, and for our own con- 
dition when death shall have opened to us the 
portals of eternity, and this mortal shall have put 
on immortality. 



Richard Kinder, Printer, Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey, London. 




Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 

I * \ 



